ZZ13
Well-Known Member
I understand the concept of bonding all the underwater metals together with tinned copper wire and connectors and then bonding them to the underwater sacrificial anodes. But I have some newbie questions about the actual wiring and connectors themselves:
1. My boat is a 13 year old salt water boat. The bonding terminals are not pristine shiny copper. They are tarnished, but I am not sure if there is actually corrosion there. As long as a wire isn't broken off the terminal, is the conductive property still fine? Or can it be compromised by the tarnish/patina?
2. I do have one 8 gauge wire that broke off its ring terminal at the generator strainer housing connection. Where would I be able to buy these non-insulated tinned copper ring terminals? I have enough wire left on this cable to just strip it back and put on a new connector end. I checked West Marine and they don't have them. Would an auto parts store have them?
3. Much like question #1, does the metal on the strainer need to be bright shiny copper and the connector bright shiny copper before I screw the connector on? Or can I screw the new connector to the tarnished strainer housing (that is, does the tarnish compromise the conductive property of the metal)?
4. Is there a regular test I should do of all the bonding wires (sounds like it could be a tedious test)? Is there one big end to end test I could do, or would I have to test each cable run individually? I can do the voltmeter thing from one end of the cable to the other end, but that seems like it would only test that the connector and cable are working well. Would touching the probe to each metal object be the way to do that?
Thanks.
1. My boat is a 13 year old salt water boat. The bonding terminals are not pristine shiny copper. They are tarnished, but I am not sure if there is actually corrosion there. As long as a wire isn't broken off the terminal, is the conductive property still fine? Or can it be compromised by the tarnish/patina?
2. I do have one 8 gauge wire that broke off its ring terminal at the generator strainer housing connection. Where would I be able to buy these non-insulated tinned copper ring terminals? I have enough wire left on this cable to just strip it back and put on a new connector end. I checked West Marine and they don't have them. Would an auto parts store have them?
3. Much like question #1, does the metal on the strainer need to be bright shiny copper and the connector bright shiny copper before I screw the connector on? Or can I screw the new connector to the tarnished strainer housing (that is, does the tarnish compromise the conductive property of the metal)?
4. Is there a regular test I should do of all the bonding wires (sounds like it could be a tedious test)? Is there one big end to end test I could do, or would I have to test each cable run individually? I can do the voltmeter thing from one end of the cable to the other end, but that seems like it would only test that the connector and cable are working well. Would touching the probe to each metal object be the way to do that?
Thanks.