2002 SAN Rear Locker / Hatch actuator electrical problems

[intrlaz]

Hey all, wondering if anyone has had issues with the actuators cutting out electrical power. Whenever the button is pressed, the radio, bilge, ballast pumps all cut out for several seconds. The engine stays on. Thanks for the help.

[core-rider]

RE: 2002 SAN Rear Locker / Hatch actuator electrical problem

I've never had issues with anything shutting off, but I do notice a sound change if I have the blower or ballast pumps running as if the power load is being diverted elsewhere.... Those little actuators must draw a decent amount of amps.

[bchesley]

RE: 2002 SAN Rear Locker / Hatch actuator electrical problem

Most issues like you describe are from bad grounds. Boats are notorious for having bad grounds because there is no chassis or frame. I would check all connectors first to see if you have any corrosion. Then trace them back to the harness to see if there are any breaks. Sometimes is as simple as a ground wire on the back of a gauage has come loose.

[DanielC]

RE: 2002 SAN Rear Locker / Hatch actuator electrical problem

I have had to fix a few electrical issues with my 1997 Ski Nautique by changing the grounds on accessories. I have grounded things directly to the engine block.
There should be at least two places on your engine block where things are grounded. One of the places is for the engine's computer, and some sensors. LEAVE THAT ONE ALONE!
Find the other place where the factory has grounded some accessories to the engine block, and ground stuff there.
Is your boat a GT-40, or a GM engine?

[intrlaz]

RE: 2002 SAN Rear Locker / Hatch actuator electrical problem

The boat has the GT-40, and I have noticed a large ground on the port side of the motor near the motor mount

[DanielC]

RE: 2002 SAN Rear Locker / Hatch actuator electrical problem

My boat has a GT-40. But it is a Ski Nautique. I used the ground by the raw water pump for some of my accessories. The gauges are a lot more stable with the grounds not being routed through the dash wiring. I was also having problems with my horn, and I grounded it there, and used the original wiring for the coil of a relay, and added a 12 gauge wire to power the horn through the relay.

[intrlaz]

Update on issue: I finally got a chance to dig into this since I am rebuilding the stereo. When the latches are energized, I get anywhere for .25 to .5 voltage drop at the battery. With all other accessories there is no voltage drop when switched on. I tested the bad ground possiblity by using two large gauge wires connected directly from the actuator to a fully charged battery. Result is the same.

Any thoughts?

[sodbuster88]

I used to experience this very same issue with my rear trunk release latch on my 2003 216. I never got to the bottom of the issue, however I noticed that if my latch was hung up or frozen and would not release when energized, I would get a current spike that would drop out my stereo and gauges....and that was when I would hit the button a few times before I noticed the latch would not release. A little lubrication on the latch to make sure they would immediately pop loose when energized helped my situation. Sorry, can't be of more help......

[core-rider]

I did a little investigation yesterday with my amp meter to see how many amps these things draw. I never got a really good reading because they seem to only be powered just long enough to release the latch. This makes no sense because if you have the blower on it will slow down until the button is released. I did see as high as 2.1 amps but most of the time it was around 1 amp. I need to get the wiring diagram out and see if there is a relay to better check the amp draw at. I'm not fully satisfied with the readings I got.

I also tried testing other components like the blower for a reference of amp draw and never got anything. My meter is kind of old so it may not be working well. I plan to retest with a different meter in the next few days.

[intrlaz]

I found a work-around for the issue, at least for the stereo cutting out.

Since I installed a new stereo, amps, etc, I ran the head unit power and ground to the grounding location of the amps. Now activating the hatch does not interrupt the stereo.

It seems that the voltage drop occurs at the main harness, so I would guess that other accessories like nav lights, etc, would still be affected. I haven't been able to test yet though.

[wakejunky]

This was an issue with at least the 03' models and possibly others. The wires running from the battery to the helm are not large enough to support the current draw on the system. I fixed the problem by running another positive and negative wires to the helm control box. I figured this out by taking the voltage reading at the battery and then at the control module at the helm and there was a pretty good drop in voltage. Once I put the extra wires in everything was fine.

Chris

[h2ohangtime]

Chris, what gauge wire did you use?

[rabbit]

This may not be related, but thought I would throw it out there...I just got my 03 SAN 210 and noticed on the water when i hit a wake, my motor would continue to run, but gauges including perfect pass would cut off for a split second then come back on. I traced it to the main power switch. I replaced the switch with a 50 amp (overkill) 3 postition switch and all is rock solid now.

Good luck!

[wakejunky]

Rabbit, that is probably related. But, could also be a bad connection someplace.

I ran a 10 or 12 guage wire from the starboard battery along the normal wiring harness to the helm control module. Probably don't need to go too big because you're running a wire in parallel to the existing power wires. You can do the simple test of pulling the kick panel from the driver's footwell, turn on the boat and measure the voltage at the battery and then at the helm control module, then turn on stuff, lights, stereo etc and see if there is any difference, if so, then you have the same problem.

Chris

[bmh2208]

Rabit.....as wakejunky pointed out it is related. I had the very same problem on my '03 SAN. It is all due to how Correct craft wired EVERYTHING electrical.

What they did was run power from the battery, then through the toggle switch, then to the breaker box. ALL power for everything (maybe not radio if you wired it seperately) will pass through the switch. Dumb!

What I did was pull a new huge power and ground directly from the battery to right behind the breaker box. Then I rigged up a large relay to switch power to the breaker box directly. The relay is triggered by the toggle switch now, so all the current goes straight from the battery, through the relay, and then to the breaker box, bypassing the switch all together. So far this has worked perfectly.

I would still recommend running power directly from the battery to a distribution block then to the radio and only use the accessory power power connection to the stock electrical system. Doing that should solve half of the problem.

Goodluck!