Rouge Wire in battery compartment

[Wesley Cobb]

Help! So, everything seems to be working well and have no issues with the boat, but...I have a wire in my battery compartment not attached to either battery. Bought the boat used and it has had amps and bass speaker installed. I removed the batteries this winter and found this wire (see pics) hanging out behind the rear battery. Can anyone look at their 242 Limited e-Series and tell me where this wire should be attached?

 

[WildCatFan54]

It's a ground (negative) but not sure to what ? Maybe my pic can help in narrowing it down ? My house battery(right) only has 2 negative cables and one of them goes to the start battery negative post. The start battery (left) has a lot more negative connections. Good Luck

 

[Wesley Cobb]

Yes. I knew it has to be a negative wire. Just not shire where it should go or if it matters. Thanks for the picture. Can you trace the wire from the rear bulkhead (see my first picture) and see which battery. I wonder if it matters though. Again, greatly appreciate the help!

 

[WildCatFan54]

Sorry I can't trace it because my boat is 100 miles away stored for the winter !! But if you have the common ground connecting two batteries plus one other on the house battery , it almost has to go on the start battery negative post ?

 

[Wesley Cobb]

Haha! Sorry to hear about the distance from you and your boat. Makes sense. Next time I go back out to the boat, I’ll hook it up to start batt and go from there. Appreciate the help! Here’s to an early spring!

 

[Dave burke]

Does everything work in the boat? It’s hard to tell on my phone but the wire looks aftermarket.

 

[Wesley Cobb]

All seems to work just fine. Only aftermarket stuff on the boat (that I know of) is a bass speaker, an amp, and tower speakers (which I removed). I’m concerned because it has the same sheathing as the main positive and negative cables on both batts. It’s a head scratcher. I fear something is ungrounded but everything works. I may just connect it and ease my mind.

 

[Dave burke]

I just looked at it again on my iPad and blew up the picture. I agree the wire loom looks the same as the other wires. The tape looks a bit loose which is what made me think it was an aftermarket cable.

i‘d suggest you try and trace the cable to the source if you can. Its weird to me that everything works without this cable being connected. I’d be a little leery about connecting it without knowing what it’s for.

You say that there’s an aftermarket amp. I believe (hopefully somebody can confirm) that the 2017 242 has two factory amps. Is it possible that this wire powers the aftermarket amp? That’s the only thing I can think of.

 

[Wesley Cobb]

Yeah, sadly, I knew that would likely be the case. I was hoping someone could just say “oh, yeah, that’s the negative cable to the fetzer valve monitoring circuit but it’s only important if you have a transom flush bearing failure. It’s ok to just reconnect it.” I’ll trace it back next time I’m out there. Appreciate the words and help!

 

[Dave burke]

Good luck! Let us know what you learn.