Help identifying electrical components

[pschauss]

Apologies in advance for the blurred picture. Are the two black objects at the bottom with the battery cables connected to them circuit breakers and is the part with washboard surface above the "breakers" the shunt for the ammeter?

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/307687/47038604

Thanks,

[Stephan]

Peter-
I got "Access Denied" when I clicked on your link..
Stephan

[Tony Meola]

Says the page is removed. Try to repost the picturedd.

[pschauss]

I fixed the permissions on the picture. You should be able to see it now.

[Stephan]

Peter-
Ok I can see the picture now.
The black objects do look like Blue Seas circuit breakers I have used:

The other item cetainly looks like a shunt to me however I am familiar with finding the shunt onthe Neg (-) side and that one is on the Positive side? I would expect to see leads from either end of the shunt leading to the Ammeter also fused near the ammeter if it is on the positive side and I do not think I see that.

[bob lico]

that is an old fashion shunt to read amperage---------totally useless. remove the red wire from the right side of the shunt and connect to the breaker and then throw shunt in a dumpster.you have voltage gauge on dashboard IF you want to monitor amperage (DC) you can have amperage meter in main panel.

[pschauss]

Stephan,

Thanks for the feedback. The picture does not show it very clearly but there is a yellow lead connected to one end of the shunt and a red lead connected to the other end. Each of the leads runs through some sort of black rubber object which looks like it might be a fuse. This picture is from the port engine compartment and the port ammeter seems to be working. The needle deflects slightly to the negative side when I turn on the ignition and slightly to the positive when the engine is running.

The ammeters for the starboard engine are not working and two leads marked "starboard ammeter", each with half of a traditional in-line fuse holder, are just dangling near the shunt. Now that I know what I am looking at I am going to run a few tests and see if I can properly connect the ammeters (upper and lower stations) for the starboard engine.

[Stephan]

Peter-
I pulled two large trash bags full of old wiring out of my B31 when I got it home.
When I look at lots of wiring I see a potential day or weekend lost with my family because gremlins beat us to the boat.
I do not use ammeters. Just volt meters on each engine and on the house bank. I do have a status of charge monitor on the house bank that I chose particularly because it does not use an ammeter.
Here's what I have:
https://www.hodgesmarine.com/Balmar-Sma ... lick=39123
Good luck and enjoy-
Stephan

[pschauss]

Bob and Stephan,

Thanks for the clarification and advice. Right now I am taking an incremental approach since I have not run into any reliability problems. What I have seen of the wiring so far looks like it is in decent shape and basically unmodified. I will have a better idea when I replace the distribution panel in the fall.

As far as I can tell my Bertram has had only two owners. The guy whose estate I bought her from had owned her since 1984 and had her professionally maintained. Based on the receipts the owner's daughter gave me, all of the repairs over the past fifteen years or so were done by the same mechanic.