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20 amp fuse keeps blowing under cowling.

kirko

New member
Hi all,
Brand new member and it took me to have a problem with my motor to find this website. Looks pretty informative. Ok short story long. About 5 outings ago blew yellow 20 amp fuse under cowling of 2001 yammie 115hp four stroke. Replaced and blew again. Sent to mechanics and he said traced it to a pinched wire at the rear of the compass where it meets dash. (All the dash instruments are wired to the ignition) Good I thought. Had it out for about 4 times after that without any problems then all of a sudden last week blew same fuse 3 times. Now when this happens the tilt trim, motor and dash instruments do not work.) Fishfinder does. Can anyone shine some light on this and what might be the problem. Funny thing is that it is intermittent and no matter what I do to it at home, cannot get it to blow again.


regards
Kirko
 
Isolate all your power source from the engine. The engine electrical doesn't short by itself. The shorts are most like coming from all the accessories you added. The rule of thump is to install separate fuse for each accessory you added with smaller fuse. Those will blow first. GL
 
Thanks for the reply Vin. Problem is that it is intermittent and last time it happened before was 4 outings ago. When it originally went the marine mechanic said that it was a pinched compass wire that illuminates same when ignition is turned on. So if I isolate it will take time to figure out. What do you think about the below photo, do these fuses look like they are under stress or is this normal.

regards
Kirko
 

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Sorry, forgot to tell you where these wires are located. They are the wires coming out of the control box into the gunnel cavity.
 
Kirko,
Those wires are not looking normal. They are brown looking because of the heat build up in those butt connectors. The heat build up could be a result of a short or there is corrosion in those butt connectors. Normally corrosion only happens to the power wires. I see the black wire (ground) has the same discoloration so I am leaning toward short. Short is common in the connections in the back of the gauges. So start there. Also I still highly suggest you to run a separate power wire off the battery to a fuse panel to feed all the accessories. Each accessory should have a separate fuse. This will first isolate your problem quickly and at the same time it will protect your equipment. GL
 
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