power issue,converter

[wgb]

recently purchased an 82 excella. going through everything this weekend and decided the converter must have been bad(not working on shore power or recharging battery) just recieved new inteli pd9100 today. still having same issues. have power untill i hook it to the dist.center, then it drops out. have a fresh charge on battery #1, when hooked up with power to the converter the fuse and pos battery wire heat up quick as if shorted. if i disconect the battery the converter does nothing? do i have a dead short somewhere in my wiring? if so where do i start troubleshooting? any ideas or advice apreciated.

[Mexray]

You've got some digging around to do...

I wouldn't hook up the new converter/charger till you have all the gremlins chased away - you might damage it!

sounds like you have one of the POS cables or wires shorted to GROUND...

Get a digital multi-meter so you can trace each leg of the 12 volt wiring, starting at the batteries....

Check the wiring around the 12 volt fuse panel carefully - if any wires look questionable, be sure to clean them up and check for proper continuity, etc...

do you have any circuit breakers on your 12 volt panel? check them carefully for proper operation - they're internal contacts can wear out over time...

it might be easy for a wire near the 12 volt panel to be touching the alum skin, causing the 'short' - again check each leg of the 12 volt path from battery to 12 panel, then to the connections on the new converter/charger (are they hooked up properly?)...

I've seen some nasty looking wiring jobs done by PO's - if your 12 volt wiring is exposed, frayed, using 'wire nuts', etc., you'll save yourself many problems down the road if you take the time to sort it all out now, in a neat orderly manner, so it's easy to trace the circuits...

good luck

Ray

[wgb]

thanks ray!

everything appears to be fine just looking at what i can see. All the wiring is original with fuses, no breakers.

i do have a decent multimeter, so i guess it's time to start ohming out all the cicuits.

[HowieE]

My first guess would be that the polarity is reversed somewhere between the converter and the battery.

If the converter as a stand alone puts out 13+ volts and the battery is good about the only thing i can think of would be reversed polarity.

Check the voltage from the positive sides of the converter and the battery to chassis ground and make sure they are the same