The circuit protector on my ships service panel #2 suddenly tripped the breakers this morning despite the fact that nothing on that circuit was on at the time (the circuit provides power to the a/c and 110 outlets in the engine room.

In attempting to diagnose the problem I isolated it to the jumper wire that connects from one of the 110v legs of the breakers (there are four) to the first breaker and then to the circuit protector breakers which are labled "test" "fault" and "voltage" respectively. By disconnecting this wire from the 110v leg it attached too I eliminated the tripping breaker problem. However, now I am wondering if I indeed have a fault in the circuit that has been detected by the protector system or a just a bad circuit protector?

Can anyone share any experience on this, the boat is a 1981 model LRC.