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Electrical Issue - Bimini and Anchor Light

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Vert

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Hi..  I'm a recent owner of a 2015 24SSRX.

 

The nav, docking, and interior lights work.  Bimini and anchor lights do not.  

 

I searched the forum a bit and tried some advice.. reversing the polarity of the two wires that are plugged in by the railing with no luck. 

 

I tried to measure any voltage with a multimeter at the rail, ensuring the NAV/ANC switch was on.. no voltage.

 

I then looked under the helm to see if I could trace the wiring using the electrical schematic on this site. 

 

According to the schematic, the interior light and anchor / bimini lights are controlled by the NAV/ANC switch.  The anchor and bimini lights have a grey/blue wire.  Under the helm I saw two connectors male and female, both with the grey/blue wiring, and they were unconnected.  With the NAV/ANC switch on, I got a 12 volt reading when testing the male connector and also when testing the female connector.

 

Anyone know if these are supposed to be connected?  I attached a pic.

 

Anyway.. thinking that was the issue I connected them and tried the lights again with no luck, reversed the polarity, etc.  Also tried a voltage test again at the rail.. nothing.

 

Any ideas other than hauling it back to the dealer for warranty work at the end of the season?

 

Thanks!

pontoon wiring.jpg
 
I have a 2014 RCW . I had a bad connector on my anchor light .Dealer came out to the marina to repair .
 
Did you try testing the two connectors with the NAV/ANCHOR switch off?  Since you have no power at the rail where the Bimini wires connect you have to trace back from there to the console and see if you can locate the other end. 

In the ANCHOR position the following should work:

Interior light w/ built in switch

Stern anchor light

Bimini frame lights

In the NAV position all of the above plus the NAV lights should work.  If any one of the three lights in the ANCHOR position work then you can reasonably assume that the switch is good and the polarity is correct.  Unless the anchor light is LED it would still work even if the polarity were reversed.
 
Thanks for the responses guys.  

Kahlua, I did test the two connectors with the NAV/ANC off and got no voltage from either.  When on, i got voltage from both.

I'd love to know which of the wires under the helm is coming from the rail.  Initially, I thought the male grey/blue connector was, but I wouldn't have expected to get a voltage reading from it when unplugged with the NAV/ANC on (thinking that the female connector would have supplied the voltage and the male was running it out to the railing).

Now I'm thinking those connectors aren't supposed to be plugged in at all and may be just for other accesssories you may want to add down the line???  Just didn't know if anyone out there could look under the helm and see if they are connected or not.

Would love to handle this on my own if possible, but I'll just let the dealer handle at the end of season if it's not easy.
 
Kahlua.. meant to say.. the switch seems good as the interior light with built in switch does work, just not getting a reading with the multimeter at the rail which would supply juice for the bimini lights and anchor light.
 
Vert said:
Kahlua.. meant to say.. the switch seems good as the interior light with built in switch does work, just not getting a reading with the multimeter at the rail which would supply juice for the bimini lights and anchor light.
Click to expand...
Isn't that what I said? :)
 
If you have an anchor light, and there are only two wires coming out of rail, I'm thinking switch is bad or not connected in the Bimini rail. The anchor light will work in either position providing power to the Bimini led lights so the problem has to lie within that portion. (Correct me if I'm wrong)
 
He has no power at the rail " Also tried a voltage test again at the rail.. nothing."  No power at the rail means that the Bimini and anchor light won't work.  If the third light controlled by that switch (the interior light) also doesn't work then the problem may be in the switch.
 
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The wires should be grey/blue (power from switch)and black (ground). He stated the interior light worked.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
cwag911 said:
The wires should be grey/blue (power from switch)and black (ground). He stated the interior light worked.
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Sorry you're right I should carefully have read the OP.  OK so the problem is between the switch and the rail.  If one had a circuit tracer you could find it in two minutes. :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Providing that one knows how to use a circuit tracer
 
Check under helm near the rail side, the wiring has to pass through there at some point, then see if the connector is a mate to one of the others that hopefully you can trace back to the switch. Should be pretty straightforward. I doubt you need to do voltage checks. 
 
Vert said:
Hi.. I'm a recent owner of a 2015 24SSRX.



The nav, docking, and interior lights work. Bimini and anchor lights do not.



I searched the forum a bit and tried some advice.. reversing the polarity of the two wires that are plugged in by the railing with no luck.



I tried to measure any voltage with a multimeter at the rail, ensuring the NAV/ANC switch was on.. no voltage.



I then looked under the helm to see if I could trace the wiring using the electrical schematic on this site.



According to the schematic, the interior light and anchor / bimini lights are controlled by the NAV/ANC switch. The anchor and bimini lights have a grey/blue wire. Under the helm I saw two connectors male and female, both with the grey/blue wiring, and they were unconnected. With the NAV/ANC switch on, I got a 12 volt reading when testing the male connector and also when testing the female connector.



Anyone know if these are supposed to be connected? I attached a pic.



Anyway.. thinking that was the issue I connected them and tried the lights again with no luck, reversed the polarity, etc. Also tried a voltage test again at the rail.. nothing.



Any ideas other than hauling it back to the dealer for warranty work at the end of the season?



Thanks!

View attachment 937
Click to expand...
I had the same issue. It’s not polarity or the switch. You have a short in the wiring harness inside of the Bimini railing. If you unplug the connectors in the railing, see if you have voltage. If not the break is before the connector. If you do have voltage, the break is between the connect and the anchor light. Bennington does a poor job splicing the anchor light wires together. They only use electric tape. You have to pull the branch of wires thru the Bimini rail to find the tapes junction.
 
AVM said:
I had the same issue. It’s not polarity or the switch. You have a short in the wiring harness inside of the Bimini railing. If you unplug the connectors in the railing, see if you have voltage. If not the break is before the connector. If you do have voltage, the break is between the connect and the anchor light. Bennington does a poor job splicing the anchor light wires together. They only use electric tape. You have to pull the branch of wires thru the Bimini rail to find the tapes junction.
Click to expand...

This thread is 9 years old. OP hasn’t been here since August 2018.
 
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