What kind of plug is this?

[Warren Kaplan]

The mast light and deck light on my 1980 CD27 are not working. On close inspection of the plug at the base of the mast, I see both outside coverings of the wires leading into both the male side and the female side of the plug are frayed through. One of the wires underneath is actually broken. That may or may not be the entire problem but there is enough slack on both sides of the plug to remove the entire plug and frayed wire section, and start with fresh wire ends and a new plug on both sides. I figure even if I'm wrong a plug can't cost much. I've looked through a couple of catalogs and I don't see the plug. Its heavy rubber, with 4 prongs on the male side and obviously 4 holes on the female side. What kind of plug is this? What's it called? Where can I get it? By the way, do any of you think there is a problem starting with fresh ends, stripping the wire and attaching the new plug carefully? I realize I may have to hunt down other defects but this one is obvious and if I'm lucky it may be the whole problem.
Thanks
Warren Kaplan
S/V Sine Qua Non
CD27 #166 (1980)



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[Richard G]

I had plug similar to what you describe on my old San Juan 21. No idea as to what it is called. Have you removed the inspection plate in the cabin in the head area. On JOHNNY G I have a a small electrical block stuffed up into the liner where the wires from the mast are connected to the the leads that go back to the pannel. If you have one of these you could just splice and weather tape the bare ends where the plug is now and do away with the plug completely. The advantage of the plug is that you can unstep the mast a little easier than if you have to remove the wires from where they pass into the boat. How is your antenna led?

BTW thanks for the e mail

RJG



Aldajon@aol.com

[Joe Cioffi]

The mast light and deck light on my 1980 CD27 are not working. On close inspection of the plug at the base of the mast, I see both outside coverings of the wires leading into both the male side and the female side of the plug are frayed through. One of the wires underneath is actually broken. That may or may not be the entire problem but there is enough slack on both sides of the plug to remove the entire plug and frayed wire section, and start with fresh wire ends and a new plug on both sides. I figure even if I'm wrong a plug can't cost much. I've looked through a couple of catalogs and I don't see the plug. Its heavy rubber, with 4 prongs on the male side and obviously 4 holes on the female side. What kind of plug is this? What's it called? Where can I get it? By the way, do any of you think there is a problem starting with fresh ends, stripping the wire and attaching the new plug carefully? I realize I may have to hunt down other defects but this one is obvious and if I'm lucky it may be the whole problem.
Thanks
Warren Kaplan
S/V Sine Qua Non
CD27 #166 (1980)

Hello Warren,
Hopefully Ican help.The plug is just a four gang plug and as you know one side is male and theother is female.
There is nothing wrong with cut back to new wire you might however find that if the strayed wire is corroded at all you might have to cut off more than one might exspect water wicks up the wire.One way of knowing if that happened is the wire will be black and not shiney like new.
You can try Lewis Marine they are a big marine supplier if you can not find this plug I know many other places.I am a marine electrian and have many outlets for such things I live in Florida my best place is Wards in Lauderdale I can get you the number.
Hope I helped and if you have any more questions feel free to e-mail me direct.Let me know if you would like Wards number.

Bye for now
Joe



JGC2@Prodigy.Net

[D. Stump, Hanalei]

Captain Kaplan,

Warren, when you do replace it, and I think you can get one at WM, be sure and identify each wire as they are removed. If you mix them up, you may not be able to figure out which is ground, masthead, deck etc.

Just a thought...

Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei

[Warren Kaplan]

Captain Kaplan,

Warren, when you do replace it, and I think you can get one at WM, be sure and identify each wire as they are removed. If you mix them up, you may not be able to figure out which is ground, masthead, deck etc.

Just a thought...

Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei

Dave,
Believe me that's the first thing I considered when looking at this plug. I'll be ready with different colored marking pencils in case the underlying wires are not all different colors. I tell ya' Dave, great minds think alike!
Thanks to everyone who chimed in about this plug. I think West Marine has them albeit a little different looking.

Warren Kaplan
S/V Sine Qua Non



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[Warren Kaplan]

Captain Kaplan,

Warren, when you do replace it, and I think you can get one at WM, be sure and identify each wire as they are removed. If you mix them up, you may not be able to figure out which is ground, masthead, deck etc.

Just a thought...

Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei

Captain Stump,

I found the part at West Marine. Its a 4 pole Trailer Connector. The manufacturer has made it pretty much idiotproof. When you remove the outer rubber cover to get at the plug to insert each wire, they have each terminal labelled. Red wire, Black, green, white. Whether that's what I'll fine when I open up the old plug, I don't know but at least its a start.
Warren



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[Warren Kaplan]

I finally decided to repair the faulty plug at the mast base that connects the wires up the mast for the deck light and the mast light. Remember this is a four pronged plug. I took the rubber insulation off the old plug and the plastic piece, housing the 4 separate wire terminals fell apart in my hand. The only thing holding it together was the heavy rubber insulation around the plug. Another thing I found. Even though this is a four pronged plug, there are only 3 wires running to it. I peeled back the rubber insulation of the wire and then unwound a little of the binding to make sure a 4th wire just didn't disintergrate. Nope! Just 3 wires. Black, green and white. With the power off and the switches on, the good old Ohm meter showed continuity if I jostled the wires a little. Remember, the connections to the terminals were miserable. All the combinations seemed to work. The new plug is easy to install. When the rubber insulation is taken off the plug, it has Red, black, white, green labelling for each terminal. Three of the prongs are bronze color and the 4th is silver in color. Makes it easy to line up connections on both sides of the plug. A question or two here. I assume that in this day and age, the red wire would take the place of a hot black wire of old. Also, is the black wire the only hot wire on the old set up? Is white= neg and green=ground? Or with two different lights and two different switches on the panel, could both black and white be hot wires?
Lastly, in spite of labelling on the back of the plug, I figure I could connect the wires to any of the terminals as long as its the same order on both sides of the plug. There's no reason why the hot wire HAS TO be connected to the one marked red is there? I just wanted to get this straight before I spend the time installing the new plug.
Thanks
Warren Kaplan
CD27



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[Joe Sankey]

I just walked in the door from reconnecting my mast lights, antenna, etc. from having the mast unstepped. I had rewired the mast, and replaced a Aqua Signal deck/steaming light with a new light (same series). The old wiring from the deck was falling apart, as yours seems to be. However, I wired the mast exactly the same as it had been and I believe the green is the steaming light. There is one hot wire, color unknown to me. All switches are in the ground return, so I'm guessing white is your deck light. FWIW I replace a three wire plug with a four wire, leaving one blank. The difficulty was the disentegration of the old wire. I used it, taping it, etc. and all works, including a replacement anchor light I installed, but this winter I have to re-wire the wire in the boat.
Joe Sankey
CD 30 Slow Dance

I finally decided to repair the faulty plug at the mast base that connects the wires up the mast for the deck light and the mast light. Remember this is a four pronged plug. I took the rubber insulation off the old plug and the plastic piece, housing the 4 separate wire terminals fell apart in my hand. The only thing holding it together was the heavy rubber insulation around the plug. Another thing I found. Even though this is a four pronged plug, there are only 3 wires running to it. I peeled back the rubber insulation of the wire and then unwound a little of the binding to make sure a 4th wire just didn't disintergrate. Nope! Just 3 wires. Black, green and white. With the power off and the switches on, the good old Ohm meter showed continuity if I jostled the wires a little. Remember, the connections to the terminals were miserable. All the combinations seemed to work. The new plug is easy to install. When the rubber insulation is taken off the plug, it has Red, black, white, green labelling for each terminal. Three of the prongs are bronze color and the 4th is silver in color. Makes it easy to line up connections on both sides of the plug. A question or two here. I assume that in this day and age, the red wire would take the place of a hot black wire of old. Also, is the black wire the only hot wire on the old set up? Is white= neg and green=ground? Or with two different lights and two different switches on the panel, could both black and white be hot wires?
Lastly, in spite of labelling on the back of the plug, I figure I could connect the wires to any of the terminals as long as its the same order on both sides of the plug. There's no reason why the hot wire HAS TO be connected to the one marked red is there? I just wanted to get this straight before I spend the time installing the new plug.
Thanks
Warren Kaplan
CD27

sankey@gulftel.com