What are these wire suppossed to connect to?

[gunner1]

These wires are from the wiring harness of my 1988 Force 50 horse outboard. I'm replacing the floor and the dash so I had to disconnect them. They went to what I believe was a junction block, but all the wires coming from that were cut off on the end. One is red with waht appers to be a blue stripe, there's a solid black, a solid orange and a solid purple.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: What are these wire suppossed to connect to?

Not sure on the 50 but standard Force wiring USUALLY is Red is power--usually constant, Black is always ground, Orange is usually overheat indicator or temp gauge, and blue is usually some type of switched power OR engine stop circuit when hooked up to White through the switch. That kind-of looks like the cable that comes from the control box to the under-dash terminal box.

 

[Mark42]

Re: What are these wire suppossed to connect to?

Does the dash have a tach? Was it working? How about the overheat alarm? I'm thinking you might have to test those items out before reconnecting everything.

 

[gunner1]

Re: What are these wire suppossed to connect to?

Not sure on the 50 but standard Force wiring USUALLY is Red is power--usually constant, Black is always ground, Orange is usually overheat indicator or temp gauge, and blue is usually some type of switched power OR engine stop circuit when hooked up to White through the switch. That kind-of looks like the cable that comes from the control box to the under-dash terminal box.

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. I guess my description was a little bit off. Could the purple be for the tach? How could I test these wires to see what their purpose is?

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: What are these wire suppossed to connect to?

Yes! I forgot to write that Purple is signal to the tach. you connect it to the signal terminal on the tach, Then test blue and red--whichever one is switched power, you connect to the 12 volt terminal on the tach and black connects to the ground terminal. That way, the tach will only draw power when the ignition switch is on.

 

[gunner1]

Re: What are these wire suppossed to connect to?

Yes! I forgot to write that Purple is signal to the tach. you connect it to the signal terminal on the tach, Then test blue and red--whichever one is switched power, you connect to the 12 volt terminal on the tach and black connects to the ground terminal. That way, the tach will only draw power when the ignition switch is on.

You said that the orange is for a temp gauge, correct? The cable only supplies power, right? There has to be a line that brings the hot water from the engine, right?

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: What are these wire suppossed to connect to?

WRONG! If using a temperature gauge, you must also use a temperature "sender" in the engine block or head. The resistance of the sender decreases with increasing heat so more voltage goes to ground. Thus more voltage goes through the gauge and the meter reads higher.

(of course, this is not true if you are using a bourdon tube temp gauge with a bulb and line from the engine) but to the best of my knowledge, all outboard marine gauges today are electrical.

The overheat indicator is simply a bimetallic switch that closes when a pre-set temperature is reached. It is either open (off) or closed (high heat--on)

If you connect a buzzer or light to a temperature sender, it will always lightly buzz (it may just "chirp") or glow dimly while the engine is running and become louder or brighter as the engine heats up.

Conversly, if you connect a temperature gauge to an overheat indicator, it will always read 0 unless the engine overheats , then it will go off scale.