Rewiring questions

[Greenhand]

We decided to install new batteries and charger. The battery cables were undersized and we moved the charger, so we have been trying to follow the original wiring back to the distribution panel. It would seem that none of the previous owners believed in removing wiring when they removed equipment.

One of today's adventures included tracing an unattached wire back to a small box with the Magellan brand name. The unattached wire that I followed led to a connection labelled "receiver" and there was another cable that I have not yet followed labelled "holder". We do not currently have any Magellan equipment onboard - the GPS/Chartplotter is Garmin, the autopilot is Raymarine. Is it reasonably safe to assume that if the "receiver" cable is running free, this box is not doing anything?

It tends to be so much easier to pull through unattached wires.

[nautical62]

I'd be inclined to open the box to see what it is and if any wired leave it.

One of my last boats similarly had all sorts of abandoned and overly complex wiring projects. Ripping most of them out and simplifying was one of the best things I ever did on that boat.

[jeepbluetj]

I ripped out about 40lbs of old wire from my boat when I rewired it. I cannot just abandon the old wire in there. Some PO had replaced the entire engine harness (since my '80 C30 had the infamous 'Trailer Connector') - which was nice. But they left the old one in there.

Rip it out. You have no magellan stuff, so rip it out. If something important stops working, put it back

[Greenhand]

We traced all the wires and cables from this Magellan unit this weekend. Nothing was attached to anything, except the distribution panel. We have found lots of that.

We still have to follow quite a few the other direction - they were cut off at the distribution panel, now we need to find out where they end up.