Help Switch wire colors don't match

[Megskelly]

On my 94 Jayco travel trailerThe hot water switch went out. I have attached a pic of the wires as well as the switch as you can see the colors don't match someone please help it's been months since this worked and my husband took it apart and doesn't remember

[ggilbert]

Do you have the old switch. Does the old switch match the new switch?
You have more wires than places to land the wires. It make me think you have the wrong switch. If you contact Jayco with the vin number they can send you a wiring. Diagram.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by ggilbert

If you contact Jayco with the vin number they can send you a wiring. Diagram.

Not for a 94, they only go back 20 years tops...

[JimD]

I would look at the water heater to see if the same colors arrive there. Hopefully the connection will be labelled.

In any event, these are all low voltage. With some trial and error you may be able to determine manually which wire does what. Basically the wiring will have a single wire for each of the following:

+12 volts
Common (ground)
Water heater power on
Non-ignition light

These are basically 4 wires for 2 separate circuits. One circuit is the +12 volts and Water heater power on. When a switch connects these two together it fires up the water heater. The other two wires are there just to light the non-ignition light. They have nothing to do with the turn on function. They just light the LED when the propane is in the lighting stage and will turn off once a flame is detected.

I would poke around with a voltmeter to see which wire is +12 volts and ground. If you can determine this, put the ground connection on the light connector and the +12 on the switch. Now you have a 50-50 chance for the remaining 2 wires. One wire will be sending 12 volts to the water heater, the other will be receiving 12 volts from the water heater. Maybe you could ohm out the wires to see which is which or maybe the color code will be correct.

It is a crap shoot to see if Jayco used the colors that the water heater specifies. Most often they use whatever is at hand. Looking at your picture my best guess is the red wire is +12 volts and the bundle of wires is common ground.

[ggilbert]

Originally Posted by JimD

I would look at the water heater to see if the same colors arrive there. Hopefully the connection will be labelled.

In any event, these are all low voltage. With some trial and error you may be able to determine manually which wire does what. Basically the wiring will have a single wire for each of the following:

+12 volts
Common (ground)
Water heater power on
Non-ignition light

These are basically 4 wires for 2 separate circuits. One circuit is the +12 volts and Water heater power on. When a switch connects these two together it fires up the water heater. The other two wires are there just to light the non-ignition light. They have nothing to do with the turn on function. They just light the LED when the propane is in the lighting stage and will turn off once a flame is detected.

I would poke around with a voltmeter to see which wire is +12 volts and ground. If you can determine this, put the ground connection on the light connector and the +12 on the switch. Now you have a 50-50 chance for the remaining 2 wires. One wire will be sending 12 volts to the water heater, the other will be receiving 12 volts from the water heater. Maybe you could ohm out the wires to see which is which or maybe the color code will be correct.

It is a crap shoot to see if Jayco used the colors that the water heater specifies. Most often they use whatever is at hand. Looking at your picture my best guess is the red wire is +12 volts and the bundle of wires is common ground.

It looks like there are more that 4 wires there.
I wonder if it’s a propane/electric heater. Or if there where multiple switches there ex my panel is battery level, tank status , water pump switches and water heater switches.

[JimD]

Originally Posted by ggilbert

It looks like there are more that 4 wires there.
I wonder if it’s a propane/electric heater. Or if there where multiple switches there ex my panel is battery level, tank status , water pump switches and water heater switches.

Your best bet is to get the model number of the water heater to see what it needs. All bets are off if you had a control panel there for other things. Hopefully someone will have the same rig and can say what is there.

[ggilbert]

Originally Posted by JimD

Your best bet is to get the model number of the water heater to see what it needs. All bets are off if you had a control panel there for other things. Hopefully someone will have the same rig and can say what is there.

It’s strange too that they are wire nutted instead of wires with spade terminals. But maybe that’s because it’s a older rig.

[Megskelly]

It's the exact same as what was on there