1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

[jaythebaron]

Hi,
I’m having a bit of an electrical issue with the instrument panel on my 1992 Grady White Tournament 192 with a 1993 150 Johnson. I’ll try my best to explain without getting too wordy.

At some point in the past 6-8 months I rewired my stern light, which was not working, to the switch and grounded it straight to the battery. Not having been out past sundown, I didn’t notice if I lost power to the panel and bow lights.

Recently, after noticing the power loss, I went to check the voltage at the fuse block underneath the panel. I ran a wire from the positive terminal on the battery and metered that wire along with the negative terminal on the fuse block. I got 12 -13volts doing so. I then reversed that configuration and ran a wire from the negative battery terminal and metered that wire with the positive terminal on the fuse block and got about 6 volts and 2 volts at the bow light.

So the other day I go to the boat for a little more troubleshooting and ran a 10ga wire and gator clips from the positive side of the fuse block to the positive battery terminal leaving the negative in its factory setup. I flipped on the navigation lights switch and everything worked except the stern light. Without flipping the switch off I disconnected the positive “jumper” cable and the whole dash and bow lights went off while the stern light came back on. And if I hooked the positive side up again, the dash comes on and the stern light goes off.

I’m decent with a multimeter but am pretty confused. Did I ground out the stern light somewhere at the switch? Also, it’s a little difficult accessing the instrument panel due to the rats nest wiring job from Grady White back in the day. Does anybody have any tips?

Thanks in advance for help and comments!

 

[Bondo]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

Hi,
I’m having a bit of an electrical issue with the instrument panel on my 1992 Grady White Tournament 192 with a 1993 150 Johnson. I’ll try my best to explain without getting too wordy.

At some point in the past 6-8 months I rewired my stern light, which was not working, to the switch and grounded it straight to the battery. Not having been out past sundown, I didn’t notice if I lost power to the panel and bow lights.

Recently, after noticing the power loss, I went to check the voltage at the fuse block underneath the panel. I ran a wire from the positive terminal on the battery and metered that wire along with the negative terminal on the fuse block. I got 12 -13volts doing so. I then reversed that configuration and ran a wire from the negative battery terminal and metered that wire with the positive terminal on the fuse block and got about 6 volts and 2 volts at the bow light.

So the other day I go to the boat for a little more troubleshooting and ran a 10ga wire and gator clips from the positive side of the fuse block to the positive battery terminal leaving the negative in its factory setup. I flipped on the navigation lights switch and everything worked except the stern light. Without flipping the switch off I disconnected the positive “jumper” cable and the whole dash and bow lights went off while the stern light came back on. And if I hooked the positive side up again, the dash comes on and the stern light goes off.

I’m decent with a multimeter but am pretty confused. Did I ground out the stern light somewhere at the switch? Also, it’s a little difficult accessing the instrument panel due to the rats nest wiring job from Grady White back in the day. Does anybody have any tips?

Thanks in advance for help and comments!

Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,.... That part of yer Test, tells me the original feed wire has a Bad connections, or is just Bad, somewhere,...

Find where that circuit ties into the battery, 'n Clean it, then retest,...

 

[jaythebaron]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

Thanks for the reply Bondo. I was thinking the same thing about the bad wire/connection. But why would the stern light not work when everything else works when it's hooked up to the jumper, and then it works when I disconnect the jumper from the positive terminal on the fuse block?

Thanks again

 

[Bondo]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

Thanks for the reply Bondo. I was thinking the same thing about the bad wire/connection. But why would the stern light not work when everything else works when it's hooked up to the jumper, and then it works when I disconnect the jumper from the positive terminal on the fuse block?

Thanks again

Ayuh,.... Donno, but my guess is, something is back-feedin' the ground, on the stern light,...

Or, ya crossed a wire somewhere,...

 

[dingbat]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

You have me scratching my head as to why you didn't you check the voltage at the fuse box instead of running new wire back to the battery? The obvious would have been to remove the wire feeding the switch at the fuse box and measure the voltage between the fuse and fuse box ground. 12 volts here would have eliminated all wiring between the fuse box and the battery isolating the problem to the light circuit.

If yours is wired like mine, you have a 3 position switch powered thru one of the fuses on the dash. The switch powers the bow, stern and mast lights. The bow and stern lights are jumpered on the switch.

you can download the schematic to your boat here

Grady-White Boats : Owners' Manuals

 

[jaythebaron]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

I'm wondering if I may have miswired something at the switch. Dingbat, I failed to mention that before I started with all of the jumper cable business, I put the meter on the the positive and negative terminals on the fuse block and that gave me the ~6volts. After that, is when I started using the jumper method to hopefully isolate the problem which appears to be on the positive line coming to the block.

So I used the jumper to go from the positive terminal of the battery to the positive terminal of the fuse block. That's when it restored power to everything (panel, bow lights) except the stern light. And when I disconnect that jumper is when I lose power to the panel and bow light and it restores power to the stern light.

I didn't disconnect the original line on the positive side on the fuse block. Is there a possibility it could be causing some voltage drain when using the jumper making the stern light go off when everything else comes on?

Thanks again for the input guys. And thanks Dingbat for the schematic.

 

[dingbat]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

I'm wondering if I may have miswired something at the switch. Dingbat, I failed to mention that before I started with all of the jumper cable business, I put the meter on the the positive and negative terminals on the fuse block and that gave me the ~6volts. After that, is when I started using the jumper method to hopefully isolate the problem which appears to be on the positive line coming to the block.

So I used the jumper to go from the positive terminal of the battery to the positive terminal of the fuse block. That's when it restored power to everything (panel, bow lights) except the stern light. And when I disconnect that jumper is when I lose power to the panel and bow light and it restores power to the stern light.

I didn't disconnect the original line on the positive side on the fuse block. Is there a possibility it could be causing some voltage drain when using the jumper making the stern light go off when everything else comes on?

Thanks again for the input guys. And thanks Dingbat for the schematic.

I doubt your losing power per say. The "jumper" is compensating for the low voltage condition at the fuse box.

My guess is your back feeding from somewhere. Put the meter on the + and - of fuse block and start pulling fuses until your get 12V back.

 

[jaythebaron]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

Hi guys,

I just got back from doing a little troubleshooting along with some maintenance. I still had no luck solving this issue. I looked around the web the other day and there was someone talking about the main 40A thermal breaker located at the starboard stern. Then I remembered about a year ago, the boat took on a little water at the starboard stern due to a malfunctioning bilge pump. My local boat mechanic said he'll have the part in tomorrow for around 8 bucks.

Does this sound like something that could likely cause the problem? As far as I can tell, a 10ga red wire runs from the positive battery terminal to the breaker, then comes out of the other side of the breaker and goes to the motor. Finally, it looks like the red wire comes from the motor up the starboard side to the instrument panel.

Dingbat, I couldn't really find anything abnormal or maybe I don't really understand back feeding.

Also, would the negative side of the battery be the best place to ground the sternlight?

Thanks again guys for the help.

 

[dingbat]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

Bringing back memories......

Is your bilge pump working?
The breaker doesn't go to the motor. It feeds the helm fuse (going forward) and the bilge and live well/wash down pumps (motor).

I would first jumper out the fuse to the helm and see what happens. I had a similar situation a few years back and traced the problems to a bad float/burned up bilge pump. The winding in the pumps grounded out and was back feeding voltage thru the ground causing all sorts of weird stuff.

 

[jaythebaron]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

Thanks Dingbat, I didn't mean bring up any bad memories and nightmares! Your problem sounds similar, my bilge pump is not working at the moment and has been intermittently working for about the past year and a half or so. What was your solution? Was it as simple as just replacing and rewiring your bilge pump?

I'm not exactly sure where the helm fuse is located and I don't see it in the schematic. Am I missing it somewhere? Just a little background on the breaker, it doesn't seemed to be tripped but the connections are pretty rusty. Since it won't cost a whole lot to replace it, I figured why not. Do you think when I took on water it could have damaged it?

Thanks again!

 

[dingbat]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

My bilge pump was shot. Replaced it and all was well.

The 40amp breaker is the main for the front helm fuse panel.

If it's rusted up, can't hurt to replace it

 

[jaythebaron]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

Well, it looks like I need to replace the bilge pump anyway. I hope that'll do the trick. Thanks again!

 

[jaythebaron]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

Hi guys,

I just thought I'd give you an update on my progress (if you can call it that). I received a 40 amp breaker today in the mail and replaced the breaker that previously went underwater. I turned the battery switch on and then the navigation lights switch and all of the dash and bow lights worked like a charm, but no stern light. It has to be grounding out somewhere. I ran out of daylight before I could do anymore troubleshooting. I need all of the light I can get since it's a pretty tight squeeze under the instrument panel. Hopefully, I'll get to that and the bilge pump this weekend or early next week.

On another note, I currently have a Rule 1100 fully automatic bilge pump and am most likely going to replace it. After reading some pretty horrible reviews online about this pump, I'm a little reluctant to replace it with the same model. Does anybody have any input on a decent automatic pump, or should I go manual pump with a separate float switch? Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Bondo]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

Hi guys,

I just thought I'd give you an update on my progress (if you can call it that). I received a 40 amp breaker today in the mail and replaced the breaker that previously went underwater. I turned the battery switch on and then the navigation lights switch and all of the dash and bow lights worked like a charm, but no stern light. It has to be grounding out somewhere. I ran out of daylight before I could do anymore troubleshooting. I need all of the light I can get since it's a pretty tight squeeze under the instrument panel. Hopefully, I'll get to that and the bilge pump this weekend or early next week.

On another note, I currently have a Rule 1100 fully automatic bilge pump and am most likely going to replace it. After reading some pretty horrible reviews online about this pump, I'm a little reluctant to replace it with the same model. Does anybody have any input on a decent automatic pump, or should I go manual pump with a separate float switch? Thoughts?

Thanks

Ayuh,.... Absolutely,.... the automatics like yer's just kill yer battery, checkin' for water,...

 

[dingbat]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

I have the OEM Rule 1100 pumps in the front and back bilge areas. Both on float switches.

 

[jaythebaron]

Re: 1992 Grady White Tourn. 192 Instrument Panel Issue

Hi guys,

I just got back from the boat and I finally got my running lights working in sync. I had to do some rewiring at the switch and cleaned up some sloppy grounds near where I put the new breaker in. Some of the cockpit lights etc. still don't seem to be working, but I'll get to that soon, hopefully it just needs some new wire.

Thanks for the input on the bilge pump dilemma. I do think I'll go the OEM Rule 1100 with an external float switch. Thanks again for everyone's help and input!