1986 Sea Ray Gauge issues, electrical

[mbible]

Hi All,
Just finished rebuilding 4.3 Merc and installing in my 1986 19.5 ft Sea Ray. Engine runs great! But having some issues now that weren't there before.

Fuel Gauge is pegged to the left ( below empty).
Trim Gauge is pegged fully to the right.

With key off, one of the lighted swith tips is lit up.

I must have some wires mixed up... Any advise would help me, greatly.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

[tpenfield]

Re: 1986 Sea Ray Gauge issues, electrical

Yes, you have some wires mixed up.

You will probably need the wiring diagram that is in the maintenance manual for that engine, and start tracing things out based on color marking, etc.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 1986 Sea Ray Gauge issues, electrical

no easy ans other than using the manual. which switch is showing the light? if its the biege pump switch that is showing the light then the level switch may be stuck (biege pump should be trying to run also). if its not the biege pump switch then i would look at the wiring on the alternator and the ground buss (merc shows it as a bolt where all grounds meet) make sure theres a wire that goes from the bolt to the engine grounding point (thats where the battery lead negative is bolted to the engine)

dont know if this pdf will help http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Servmanl/13/13E4R2.PDF

 

[mbible]

Re: 1986 Sea Ray Gauge issues, electrical

no easy ans other than using the manual. which switch is showing the light? if its the biege pump switch that is showing the light then the level switch may be stuck (biege pump should be trying to run also). if its not the biege pump switch then i would look at the wiring on the alternator and the ground buss (merc shows it as a bolt where all grounds meet) make sure theres a wire that goes from the bolt to the engine grounding point (thats where the battery lead negative is bolted to the engine)

dont know if this pdf will help http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Servmanl/13/13E4R2.PDF

Thank you! that DID help tremendously. It was a long afternoon / evening but with your help I got all my issues resolved. Yes, mostly grounding proerly fixed a lot. I even was able to identify some future issues and prevent them. Everything now works. Exception is the trim gauge... it's not pegged anymore but it only reads on the extereme ends of the spectrum. It does not read the proper orientation of the outdrive. Also, I've notiticed that when trimming to full down, the pump keeps running untill I let off the switch, it doesn't stop at the limit.

Senders you think?

 

[tpenfield]

Re: 1986 Sea Ray Gauge issues, electrical

yes senders are probably bad. they are about $60 from Sierra . . . a bit more oem

 

[markheck1]

Re: 1986 Sea Ray Gauge issues, electrical

doesn't the trim limit only limit how far you can trim up, to prevent damage to the driveline? Yours sounds normal to me
As far as the sender goes the only thing most folks use it for is to see if the drive is up for trailering or not, trim is really a feel thing.

 

[mbible]

Re: 1986 Sea Ray Gauge issues, electrical

For grins, I cleaned senders and gave myself a crash course on adjusting them. All is good.
Thx all for your input on helping ID the problem