What is this the battery is connected to?

[TooManyDogs]

Can anybody tell me what this is and what it does? The positive wire from the battery is connected to it and there's a black coming off. Is it related to the fact that the van had a wheelchair lift?

The lift has been removed but I asked them to leave the wiring. I was hoping I can connect two (of the 3 wires remaining-I think there's a red and two black wires) to my marine battery. Still need to figure that out though.

Thanks for your help. I don't know electrical but am trying to learn. Any good (dumbed down) sources you recommend?

 

[skyl4rk]

Looks like a 100A fuse. Have you tried a voltmeter on it?

 

[highdesertranger]

it's a 100 amp DC Breaker. could be for the chair lift. highdesertranger

 

[TooManyDogs]

Looks like a 100A fuse. Have you tried a voltmeter on it?

No. I just saw it today when I jumped off the battery. Another story...van died while I was driving to recharge the battery. Mechanic says its the alternator.

Googling says it's a circuit breaker. But don't know to what, though I'm guessing it must be the lift.

Could a circuit breaker cause the battery to not recharge?

 

[rvpopeye]

Do you have a multimeter?

 

[Gary68]

if you are thinking of hooking a house battery to charge off your alternator you would need a constant duty solenoid

 

[Yodavan]

Try to follow the black cable back to where it is attached, then you'll know what it's for.

 

[SternWake]

A continuous duty solenoid is but one way of many dozens of methods and products available to charge a dedicated house battery and have the engine battery safe from house loads.

That circuit breaker appear to lack it, but others have a push button circuit disconnect/lever to reconnect, and one of these could be used as a manual switch to break or connect the house battery into the alternator circuit.

https://www.amazon.com/Bussmann-CB1...=8-1&keywords=100+amp+bussman+circuit+breaker

No charging of the vehicle battery could be a failed voltage regulator,

It could be a failed fusible link or Maxi fuse in the wire from alternator(+) to battery (+).

It could be be a bad connection anywhere in the above circuit from alternator to (+) battery stud, or the (-).
It could be the battery, but this is generally very obvious.

It could be a failure in the power to the voltage regulator, if separate from alternator, may VR's are within alternator. Depends on vehicle.

It could indeed be the alternator but this is the last thing I would expect to replace and only after verifying, not the first.

If your mechanic simply wants to throw a part at it, and has not verified the other possibilities first, find another mechanic.

 

[TooManyDogs]

I do have a multimeter, though I'm not sure I use it correctly all the time. The van is at my mechanic (he's a shade tree one and did say he'll check to make sure the alternator is indeed bad before having it rebuilt).

I will follow the black wire when I get the van back. Maybe I should ask him to install a continuous duty solenoid for me since he's already working with the alternator. The van is a 2004 Ford e350. Is the alternator easy to access?

Thanks for your help so far!

 

[TooManyDogs]

Oh, if there's no rest switch on the circuit breaker, how would I reset it? How would I even know if it's not working?

 

[SternWake]

If there is no lever, it is a self resetting circuit breaker, AFAIK. No reset button.

When overloaded it heats up and two contacts separate, when it cools back down contacts close automatically.


To test, Set digital mulitmeter to DC volts

place black lead probe on negative battery post.

Place red lead on one of the terminals on the CB. should read 12.X volts on both input and output.
Might have to scratch the rust or oxidation off.

The rust is not a good sign, but does not necessarily indicate failure. It should be removed from CB and the wire's ring terminals

 

[wagoneer]

put the setting knob on DC at 20 volta touch the red to one side and the black to the other side. if you get a reading it will have a plus or minus sign letting you know which is the positive side.

 

[TooManyDogs]

Here's another question:

IF the switch in the van that controls the wheelchair lift works (I'm assuming it does), can I just hook my marine battery to the wires that were hooked up to the lift, and flip the switch to 'on' when I'm driving to charge the marine battery? Any reason to not do this if it'll work?

 

[rvpopeye]

It will work , the bigger the wires are the better.

 

[blars]

It depends, but I'd guess the switch controlled a relay on the lift. Without that relay, you could only control a small load with that switch.

 

[abnorm]

I've been a 'designated driver' of a Braun handicapped conversion van for my BIL.........

In that photo the circuit breaker has a rubber waterproof cover protecting the reset button (notice the thin rubber strings securing the cover from loss) .........just lift (slightly PRY) the cover and see what's there....The cover snaps back on.........doug

 

[Zizzer_Zazzer_Zuz]

IF the switch in the van that controls the wheelchair lift works (I'm assuming it does), can I just hook my marine battery to the wires that were hooked up to the lift, and flip the switch to 'on' when I'm driving to charge the marine battery? Any reason to not do this if it'll work?

I was just outside checking out my chairlift and i would have to say IF the circuit works and you get juice the wires are not very heavy duty. Like others have pointe out, the heavier the better.

I'm thinking this could be a stop gap but not really what I would consider engineered. If it works I may run this way to Quartsite. We'll see.

 

[SternWake]

The Switch on the Bussman Circuit breakers is likely not rated for 100's of cycles. Their contacts inside will wear out, become more resistive, and then it will start tripping at much lesser amperages than their ratings.

If one wanted a manual switch, to manually bring the house battery into the alternator charging circuit, this is the product you want:

https://www.bluesea.com/products/6006/m-Series_Mini_On-Off_Battery_Switch_with__Knob_-_Red

There are so many methods and products to allow battery charging of house batteries protecting engine battery from house loads that it is an entire thread on its own.

The Bussman CB shown in the OP does not show the push button disconnect nor the lever reconnect, and I cannot even find such a product in their catalog, so I believe it is quite old. To pass ABYC codes the terminals where the cables connect have to be covered with the rubber boots. AFAIK, there is no switch under the rubber boots.

One could certainly retask the cabling which runs back to the wheelchair lift. My buddy's used sprinter van used 4awg for the lift, and a frame ground, but I found green corrosion wicking up under the insulation a foot from its end, and do not want to retask it for battery charging. I also found some wire chafing and cracked insulation under the body.
Also the length and the TPPL AGM battery bank would be so much better off with thicker cabling which would pass much higher amperages to these 'thirsty' distant batteries. He's old and loves to argue so the project sits until he does it himself, or acknowledges that he is not right, and that green corroding 4awg copper and cracked insulation wrapped with electrical tape or self fusing silicone tape, is not 'just fine' because he can't envision how it cannot pass enough current to make 800$ of depleted AGM battery happy.

Also I would much prefer to take power from Alternator (+) stud than from engine battery (+) stud, as the original OEM circuit was never designed to pass the extra current to depleted batteries, especially TPPL AGM's( thin plate pure lead), and becomes a bottle neck which limits charging amps because of longer circuit length, increased resistance, and resultant voltage drop. I have issues when asked to use only half my ass on projects, and usually turn them down.

So often attempt to save money come back and shoot one in the foot and then smear feces into the wound, especially regarding electricity.