Wiring a battery

[deerminator]

So I'm a first time boat owner (last year) and admitted one-who-thinks-I-am-silly on some of the maintenance topics. I disconnected my battery last year and left it in the boat compartment. Took it out today, charged it up full and then realized - duh - forgot to diagram wiring. So, I think I have it figured out, though, and would love input. I have three black wires, a big one that goes over terminal, medium one that fits over and small one that won't fit over. Those, I would imagine go over the negative terminal. Then I have a big red one, medium red one (both fit over terminal) and small blue one. I would imagine those all connect to positive terminal. I do remember it was three and three per posts. So is there a good chance I have this right? I think so studying marine wiring color code charts. Assuming whomever wired this boat did it right. And how do you connect the little wire or wire with little loop that wont fit over the terminal. Sandwich it in between the big and medium ones and it stays in place when you tighten them all down? Thanks in advance for any input.

[gunner55]

There's two ways to do it.Is it for 12v or 24v?One is in series,the other is parallel.I'm sure if you google it there will be a diagram & probably a video on you tube also.Someone else will chime in here too,I'm sure

[h8go4s]

Red wires go to the positive post of the battery. Black wires go to the negative post of the battery. The blue wire is a mystery to me. In any case, sandwiching a wire between two others is a sloppy way to do it. I'd replace the terminals on those with bigger one.

Is there a fuse block or are the wires individually fused?

Is this a new boat from a dealer or a used boat? I can't imagine a dealer wiring a boat this way. Talk to whomever you bought the boat from and find out what the blue wire powers and if it is positive or negative.

What are the electrical gadgets you have in the boat? I would assume the two large terminals (one black and one red) are for your outboard if it's an electric start. The two medium terminals might be for an electric trolling motor if you have one. The two small ones could be for other accessories such as sonar, lights, horn, pumps, etc. but you need to figure that out.

[deerminator]

Thanks! Its a 20 year old Larson runabout with a Yamaha outboard. Very nice boat in terms of condition and ran great all last summer. It has a stereo, bilge pump, depth finder, speedometer, nav lights and horn of course. Nothing else really like a trolling motor or anything. The way I remember it now, the big loop was on the bottom, the small loop next and medium loop last on top when they were connected. so the small loop that doesn't fit over the post must have been sandwiched in between the big and medium loops to stay put. It ran fine all last summer that way but perhaps I should modify.

[aanderud]

Many marine batteries have two different sizes on the positive and negative posts. If the one loop on the blur wire is too small for your positive battery post, will it fit on the other post? And if so, what are the odds it actually belongs there? You said this one is blue, so it's not obvious to me that it would be the 'positive' wire (positive is usually red).

It's possible that it's really supposed to be the negative wire. Now, don't just go try hooking it up that way, because if you reverse the polarity on some electronics, they will fry. I'm just saying that if the loop is smaller, it's possible that it fits on the other one (and maybe making it smaller was intentional so you can't hook it up 'the wrong way'). Best bet is to figure out where that blue wire actually goes and see if you can find clues on the other end as to whether it's supposed to be the positive or negative wire.

[Pat K]

I would check the depth finder to see if the smaller blue and black wires lead to it. They are usually lighter gauge wire and a lot of people like to connect them directly to the battery instead of a fuse block.

I've gotten into the habit of zip tying the rings for each terminal together when I remove a marine battery. I use black for neg and clear for pos.

[deerminator]

Thanks for the good advice. So I got out there tonight and tried it. Everything worked except the motor tilt on my Yamaha kept making a clicking noise. I disconnected everything and reversed the two small wires. I probably got lucky because there was a spark and I quickly removed and the wire was getting warm, I waited a bit, put the wires back the way they were before and same thing. Everything worked except the tilt. I had drug the skeg lightly across the shed floor when pulling the boat out the other day just a few feet by accident. Hadn't remembered to tilt the motor up. Another rookie mistake. Anyway, I tried again. More clicking. I tried again and the tilt kicked in. Weird, I mad sure everything was connected tight. Will have my FIL check it out too this weekend as he is the master tinker and former fixer of snowmobiles and automobiles professionally when younger. I very much appreciate all the input. Everything seems to work - for now!

[marine_man]

If you have a test light or a multi meter, I'd start with the tilt and trim relays and verify that they're working correctly.

marine_man

[boatfixer]

What did you end up doing with the blue wire? Did you trace it back to the tilt system by chance? 

Blue is up and green is down

(blue sky, green grass) is the way to remember tilt system wiring. It could just be a coincidence that you have a stray blue wire and your motor won't tilt up but I'd look in that direction