Mast Lighting

[LordElsinore]

This weekend I removed the anchor light from the top of my mast, suspecting something to be wrong with it or the wiring inside the mast. The light worked fine when connected to voltage once removed. And the testing the wiring itself inside the mast showed no connectivity problems there.

Removed the wires from the plug and receptacle and it turned out that for whatever reason the conductor in the plug for that specific light no longer quite reached to the bottom of the receptacle where it needed to. For now, some very small balled up pieces of tin foil poked down into that hole in the socket allowed the plug conductor to make good contact. I'll probably replace socket and plug next year.

[Russ]

Never underestimate the uses of aluminum foil.

Makes for good temporary fuses in a pinch.

(I'm kidding, I'm kidding)

[Be Free]

This weekend I removed the anchor light from the top of my mast, suspecting something to be wrong with it or the wiring inside the mast. The light worked fine when connected to voltage once removed. And the testing the wiring itself inside the mast showed no connectivity problems there.

Removed the wires from the plug and receptacle and it turned out that for whatever reason the conductor in the plug for that specific light no longer quite reached to the bottom of the receptacle where it needed to. For now, some very small balled up pieces of tin foil poked down into that hole in the socket allowed the plug conductor to make good contact. I'll probably replace socket and plug next year.

I keep a small piece of aluminum foil in my toolbox on the boat for just that reason. The deck connector is not the only one that I've had to temporarily "fix" with a bit of foil. The cable on my chart plotter developed the same problem while I was out on a long trip and the aluminum foil kept it connected until I got back and ordered a new one.

[socalmacer]

Lots of talk about bad fittings here. The one thing I did back in 1996 when I first wired extra items on my new 26X like the VHF radio, the stereo, extra fuse panel etc. was use a corrosion inhibitor gel on all the "permanent" electrical connections. This has worked great as have not had a bad connection since. As far as the fittings go where have to connect and dis-connect on a regular basis, I use the same gel. This has worked great for the trailer connections and the mast wire connection fitting on the deck. I use the gel along with a very small screwdriver to "clean out" the connections and apply some fresh gel. I had a reminder to continue using this gel when a recently replaced speaker suddenly stopped working. Come to find out the crimped connection at the speaker lost connectivity due to some corrosion where I had not used this gel. This gel you can buy at home depot and came as a recommendation from a long time electrician friend. When replacing light bulbs, I also use the gel on all the contacts both on the bulb and fixture.

[LordElsinore]

Good tip on the gel. Do you have a specific kind you use?