Boat wiring help

[C-Bass2mouth]

Left the plug in my boat over hunting season and didn't know it. The cover got pulled off a little and filled it with water. I've redone all the main battery connections, motor starts, 12/24V trolling motor/graph/all the switches on the front deck work (trim, etc). Only problem so far is none of the switches at the console work (lights, live well, bilge, acc, horn). In the pics below this (ground Busbar??) Was dangling low enough to be submerged in water. Not exactly sure what it is and haven't been able to trace any of the wiring back yet. I assume it runs to a fuse block that runs to my switch board on the console?

My question is this typically just a grounding Busbar or power? It has one larger black wire plug, so I'm guessing that is from the negative post on my battery. If I were to get a new bar, cut the connectors off, strip the wires back and put new connectors on the new bar should that fix my problem? I bought the boat used so idk if the guy had done this wiring himself or if it typically comes from the factory like that.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[jmarine]

That's the ground bus bar be careful when you cut the wires corosion can travel up the wires at times if you can I would replacethe wires up to whichever component it's hooked to and use heat shrink or liquid black take

[C-Bass2mouth]

Originally Posted by jmarine

That's the ground bus bar be careful when you cut the wires corosion can travel up the wires at times if you can I would replacethe wires up to whichever component it's hooked to and use heat shrink or liquid black take

Ok, I may just do that. Thanks. Should I get a bus bar with the plug style connectors like this one, or one with the round connectors you screw down?

[marty f]

If you can get your hands on some DC4 (Dow Corning #4) it's an electricly conductive grease, coat your connectors with this, they won't ever corrode again. If you can't get that once you have all you connections made spray them down with WD40, soaked and DO NOT wipe them off, let them drip dry. Be sure u put down something to catch the run off.

[Visco]

I am in the process of re-wiring my boat as well. I do not need to, but I have noticed corrosion has start on exposed wires. I am using the Tinned Copper wire that you can purchase at West Marine. The Tin liner helps to prevent corrosion and extends the life of the wire drastically. The other thing that I do to prevent corrosion is to use liquid electrical tape on the exposed wire, then I put heat shrink over that as added protection. No matter how you do this, you will have exposed medal... Use a corrosion-proof insulating film again is easily found at any Marine store.

If you use Youtube, I would suggest doing a youtube search for boat wiring to give you some great examples on how to do this the right way and make it look good and last even longer.

Good luck

[C-Bass2mouth]

Got her rigged up and fixed some other minor electrical issues. Thanks for the help guys. Finally installed my Lowrance LSS-1 unit also. Only problem is my console HDS unit mysteriously shut off while I was working on it and won't come back on. No blown fuses, the plug is hot with enough voltage, and my bow HDS unit works fine at the console. I'm going to start a separate thread for this, maybe someone can help me out with this too.