Electrical Help please

[Miniton]

I have a 1994 Astro FSX w/ 1994 200hp Mercury Blackmax. Everything was working great until I went to remove an old fish finder and must have popped something.
I have power and all lights, bilges and radio work fine but I have no power to trim/tilt, actual gauges or starter. It is like there is not a battery even hooked up. I have 12.89 volts at battery.
I searched all over for a fuse block or something because that is what I assume it is but cant find any fuses at all.
Can anyone point me in the right direction? I thought it would be under the cowl but I dont want to just start removing things.

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[Miniton]

Re: Electrical Help please

OK, a little more info.
I did a lot of reading on these forums and they are a great help. I have all the gauge diagrams from here and I just checked the "A" terminal on the ignition switch and get NO reading at all.
What is next step? I still am unsure of where any fuses may be under the cowl if that is where I need to look.

Thx again

 

[flargin]

Re: Electrical Help please

OK, a little more info.
I did a lot of reading on these forums and they are a great help. I have all the gauge diagrams from here and I just checked the "A" terminal on the ignition switch and get NO reading at all.
What is next step? I still am unsure of where any fuses may be under the cowl if that is where I need to look.

Thx again

Minton, If I were a betting man I would bet the main circuit fuse is blown. That being said, I have no idea where it would be. You may want to post on the Outboard forum a "Where is the main fuse" question. If you find the parts lists, they normally show diagrams which may help. These are common on the I/O sale sites, but I don't know about the outboard.

I used to have a mercury o/b and I know the fuse was on the back in a connector, about the size of your thumb. You may just want to chase the wires and see if you can see it.

It is normally about 30A and if blown, nothing works.

If you want to post a couple of pictures of the engine, we may be able to 'point it out'

Good luck.

 

[triumphrick]

Re: Electrical Help please

Go ahead and pull the housing. As flargin mentioned it is pretty easy to trace the power connection back through the motor. The fuse is usually encapsulated in a rubber boot that you can slide back to access the fuse holder. Good luck!

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Electrical Help please

Trim/Tilt, gauges, and starter solenoid are powered through the engine harness. Find the fuse under the engine cowl. It will look something like this:

 

[Miniton]

Re: Electrical Help please

Found it. It was the fuse. Totally blown. It did not say fuse and looked a little different than the picture but it was in the same area so I saw it.
Thank you all for the help.
6.5 hrs and .75 cents later I can sleep.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Electrical Help please

No you can't sleep. You didn't determine "why" the fuse blew.

 

[Miniton]

Re: Electrical Help please

It was a 110v air pump for tubes that I tried to hook up through a power converter plugged into the 12v bloat plug. Did the same thing to my car.
Gotta get a 12v pump.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Electrical Help please

That may not solve your problem either. Pumps take a fair amount of current so it doesn't matter whether you used a converter (actually and inverter) or a 12 volt pump. The wiring for that pump is apparently connected to the "A" terminal on the ignition switch which gets its power through the engine harness. While that's ok for low power devices such as cell phone chargers and the like, it is not ok for high power devices. Keep the inverter, but power it directly from the battery. It will work just fine.