Electrical problem please help

[Hayden2397]

It's winter and I was down on my boat doing some cleaning, I had an electric heater, a heat gun and the radio running. The heater and heat gun randomly turned off for a few seconds, then came back on for a few minutes then shut off again and stayed off. I checked the fuses at the panel on my boat and at the dock and the fuse on the outlet they were all good, I have power comeing though my shore power cable but none of the lights on my charger are on, the only light that is on is the reverse polarity light by the main circuit brecker. I went to west marine and talked to someone there, they said to check the back of the circuit breaker for burn marks or a short in the wires, I didn't find and so they suggested replacing the main circuit breaker which I did, I unhooked all the batteries replaced the switch and when I was hooking the batteries back up I was on the last batteries negative lead when I hooked one of the wires to it, it sparked which they all sparked a little so I didn't think much of it but after a while I heard a like propane torch hiss. That scared me so I unhooked those leads and it stopped, I found out that it was only one wire that causes this noise to happen to I traced the wire and it leads to my radio. Does anyone have any ideas what's wronge? Thanks, sorry for my bad grammar

 

[gonzo]

Is the noise coming from the cable or the radio?

 

[Ike]

If your reverse polarity light is on then what's the mystery? you have a reverse polarity some where. You need to check all the AC connections to make sure the Black (the hot wire) and the White (neutral wire) are not reverse somewhere. I suspect that it is at the dock outlet. You may need to get the marina to have an electrician check it. Unfortunately this is an all too common situation. That's what polarity monitors are for. If it's not at the dock then check the back of the shore power socket and it's connections to the main panel. Some items will work with reverse polarity but most won't, but even more important it creates a very severe shock hazard.

Get it checked by a marine electrician if you don't understand how things are wired in the AC circuit.

 

[sdowney717]

IF you have US style 240 and 120 VAC, 2 hots and 1 neutral, makes me wonder if the neutral wire broke either at dock or on the shore power cable or in the boat wiring to the panel.
I mean, consider, everything was ok before. No one changed the polarity on the power box while your there.

So what really happened? If the neutral broke, then get it fixed quick! Something about a broke neutral can overvolt the 120 vac line and blow them up. Your description sounds just very strange what occurred with the power.

Anyway, seeing the thread is so old, I am sure it got fixed by now.