Nav Light Replacement

[papawads]

I set about to replace the red / green nav lights on the pulpit (2001 model) with encapsulated LED units with long wires.

Try as I might, and I did try, I simply cannot pull the old cable out of the SS tube. Have tried both from inside and out.

Admittedly, I didn't pull so hard as to break the cable, as I might HAVE to reuse it.

Has anyone else had more success.

Views of path ahead?

Thanks
Papawads

[rxc]

I just did this, with the encouragement of someone else here who had done it before. The frightening parts were not bad, and in the end I understand better what is going on, and how I would do it differently next time. I had replaced my old large incandescent lights with AquaSignal Type 33 lights about 8 years ago, but about a month ago I noticed that the stbd (green) light was not working.

There are 2 problems with replacing these lights - (1) the mounts for the lights, and (2) the wires/splicing them. I don't know which lights you will be using but the AS33/34 lights do not have the right hole pattern for the existing mounts. So I ended up making an intermediate adaptor piece that attached to the mount with one set of holes, and to the light with a different set of holes. I will put together a set of photos after I write this.

The wires/splices was the really hard part. AS only provides an 8-inch pigtail with 24g wires that have a tiny tinned tip on them. Those tips are very important to the success of this project, because it is very hard to crimp the 24g wires to anything, while you are sitting up in the bow trying not to drop anything in the water, wrapping your arms around the forestay to hold stuff.

I posted a request for advice about replacing the wiring, because mine had "rotted" - got salt water in the wire and the un-tinned copper had corroded quite a bit. I was advised to just pull out the old wire and install new in place. I was worried about making the various bends inside the bow pulpit with a fish tape, but that turned out to be easy.

The biggest problem is where the pulpit goes thru the deck. It looks like Jeanneau welded a custom fitting to the pulpit tubing at that point, to allow the joint to be sealed, and the inside of that joint is very rough and smaller than the pulpit tubing. It is tricky to get the fish tape thru that hole – you will have to poke and prod it and try to feel where the hole in the fitting is located. It is a quintessential boat job.

The old wiring came out easily. Remove the old light - cut the wire between the light and the pulpit. Then remove the grommet that seals the hole where the wire exits the tubing at the light. Be careful not to damage the grommet because you will want to put it back with the new wire. Then cut the wire close to the hole in the pulpit and stuff the end into the pulpit. At this point you can just pull the wire out from down below. I assume that you have found the other end underneath the anchor windlass.

Getting a new wire back in requires a length of flexible braided wire like bicycle brake wire, with a tip that is in very good condition – not splayed out at all. A drop of solder on the end would be perfect.

You have to run this fish tape from the inside of the boat up into the pulpit and out to the hole where it exits the pulpit. It is a 2-person job to just see the fish as it passes the hole so you can grab it with a very narrow pliers or a dental pick and pull it out. Then use some slippery tape, like 3M blue painters tape (the large size), to hold the new wire to the fish wire and pull the new wiring back thru the pulpit into the boat, where you connect it to the interior wiring. DO NOT USE DUCTTAPE – it will catch on the hole in the pulpit fitting and make a mess (don’t ask how I know). You want a thin layer of slippery tape to hold the wires together. It also helps to have someone up top pushing the new wire into the pulpit.

Now, I have left out how to join the lighting to the wiring. I screwed up the wiring on my replacement AS33 light when I tried to splice it to the original wiring, which was rotted. I lost the hard tip on the end which is essential to making a good crimp connection. If I had to do it again, I would take a length of wire that I was certain would be long enough, and splice it to the light in my house, sitting down in a civilized place, with good light and no wind. And then wrap that connection to waterproof it up in the house. Then take that down to the boat and feed the wire thru the mount. The free end gets attached to the fish line, and it all goes in easy. I might even solder the light to the new wire to make sure it was good connection and easy to install shrink tubing over the joints to waterproof it.

Waterproofing the connection if the wiring is already in place is a nightmare. My red light looks like the wire is pregnant because of all the tape and other stuff I applied to try to keep the water out. If you make the splice on the new wire before you run it thru the pulpit, you have direct access to the end to slide on the heatshrink tubing, and it will look very nice, and probably work for quite a while. My new wiring splice is probably only about 4 months pregnant, while the red side is about 8 months.

Oh, and remember to put the grommet on the new wire before you feed it into the pulpit. Carefully squeeze it to get it to seal the hole.

The connections inside the boat are easy. I will put together some photos and post them after I put this up. More to come.

[andreshs1]

Apr 30, 2023 14:08:40 GMT papawads said:

I set about to replace the red / green nav lights on the pulpit (2001 model) with encapsulated LED units with long wires.

Try as I might, and I did try, I simply cannot pull the old cable out of the SS tube. Have tried both from inside and out.

Admittedly, I didn't pull so hard as to break the cable, as I might HAVE to reuse it.

Has anyone else had more success.

Views of path ahead?

Thanks
Papawads

I took the easy route and replaced the bulbs by LED ones
but I would be interested to know which model you install

cheers