|
Main bus bar corrosion
Hi folks, I found a new problem this weekend. A buddy was camping with us in their 2012 model year Jayco popup, and they could not het any of the house lights to work.
The battery was dead. No biggie, get a new battery.
OK. Still no joy.
The converter wasn’t putting out any power at all. There was a short on the pigtail to the truck, so cut the 12v+ to the truck, and finally the 12v bus in the converter was live.
But the converter wasn’t running.
Pedastle was checked, good power. Even went to another pedestals.
Finally opened the breaker panel and pulled the converter out, start looking for loose mains. Nothing. Open the sub panel to gain access to the breakers. Unsnap the beakers, look Into the hot bus on the 120v side.
BINGO.
The mains had corroded at the lug where it connects to the hot side bus bar in the breaker panel.
Corrosion at the lug was bad, and looked like it’s been slowly deteriorating for years.
The strands of wire were deteriorating, and as the strands rotted away, the resistance went up, and finally the mains line started to overheat.
I don’t think it was water intrusion.
My guess is galvanic action between the aluminum bus bar and the lug and copper mains line.
I’ll update this post with a pic when I get Back to the office.
But who knew we should inspect the main bus bar inside the breaker panel??
That’s not exactly something I would EVER expect a noobie to know how to attempt. hell, on the back side of that breaker, it’s down right dangerous to be messing with the mains.
|
Linear Mode
