50 Amp thermal breaker

J

JGrider

New member
I just lost power to everything and I think this part just went bad. Radio went out first and the cabin lights went next. Motor starts but I am only getting about 4 volts on one side of this and I was wondering if I should just jumper across this thing for a few days? I do not know how important this part is. Any answers out here today?

Part is in the battery compartment and I believe everything is fused after this anyway.
 
If it is the 50-amp breaker I am thinking of, everything in the house should have gone at once. There is a little arm down there that you can just push back horizontal and it resets.
 
Everything is dead now except the engine and trim. Reset allows only 4 or 5 volts to run to equipment. Cabin light will flickers slightly once in a while but led lights do that I believe.

Where is the best place to purchase this?
 
Disconnect both batteries and check the voltage with a volt meter across the poles of the house battery. Sounds like the house battery may have taken a dive. If the battery shows 12 volts plus, check the battery switch for corrosion.
 
Both batteries have 12.5 volts at the terminals. One side of this breaker shows 4 volts. In the berth I also show 4 volts across the main bus bars.
I jumpers around this for just a few seconds and everthing works.
 
Any good marine store (such as West Marine) should have the 50 amp breaker in stock. Do not jump around the breaker--there is a reason it is there: to protect from fire due to a short circuit. These don't go out often.
I wouold kick it on and off a few times--it is possible that the contacts arced and have carbon on them, which is giving a high resistance.

If you have to bypass the breaker, then use a 40 amp fuse. Any auto store will have this.
 
Had a like problem. Every time I pounded hard the house power went out, then it would come back on the next time I hit a wave. Checked it with a volt meter and had 4 volts across the panel's buss. No problem with motor's power. Looking at the 50amp fuse I had some crud around one connector and it seemed a little loose, but only a little. When I played with it, with the VHF on, power would come and go. Wire brushed both the connectors and used West Marines electrical "grease" on it. No further problem...at least for now.

Still wondering why 4 volts in both these cases, normally should be 0 or 12.7? I know, probably resistance from a bad connection but most such problems I have encountered in the past were pure 0 volts, here we have two boats both with 4 volts somehow comming through.

Ron
 
Thanks for the reply Ron. Must be a similar situation. I thought it was corroded terminals. I cleaned around everything, all terminals and lugs before I started checking voltages. Like always I do things backwards. I finally tried to see if I could see inside the breaker but they were not made to clean or repair. Even broken down it would read a real high resistance across the terminals. I found several on line and even one at a bass pro shop. The one on line should be delivered in two days. Thanks again for the reply.
John
 
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