About to attempt a full re-wire on my 74 Starcraft.

[Amodave]

I bought this 1974 Starcraft Runabout "70's Show" beast for a "good price" well the block was busted and I went motor shopping. Found a steal on an 84 Searay Deville Cuddy cabin with trailer for $200 out the door, I only wanted the motor and I got that too. Paid a guy (way too much) to swap out the motors and he got into an electrical mess just between the two boats 10 years apart with the same motor. He got it runnung, sluggishly at best, but it was running then I fried the points, fixed the points, new ignition and saw smoke coming from the wiring harness on top the motor. I simply stopped at that point and said I will TRY to do this myself from the ground up and do it right. Can it really be that hard? Any tips, hints, constructive criticisms, anything you can tell me will not go unattempted.

I am new to boating but fairly good with autos. Kind of excited to jump into it this weekend

 

[dingdongs]

Re: About to attempt a full re-wire on my 74 Starcraft.

hopefully you may only have to replace the wiring around engine but you may want to post in the electrical section in future.try and use coloured wires if possible of marine quality and a multimeter and a wiring diagram from the manuals in the sticky section above may be very useful.

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Re: About to attempt a full re-wire on my 74 Starcraft.

Use good connectors like heat shrink butt connectors, and the correct wiring colors that they were suppose to be. Here is an online manual for you to check out. You can not download it but can print out pages.

It's 800 some pages so may be a little slow to open at first.
Wiring diagrams are on secton 3E
http://boatinfo.no/lib/mercruiser/manuals/mercruiser2.html#/0

 

[Don S]

Re: About to attempt a full re-wire on my 74 Starcraft.

One big problem you are going to notice right away is the color coding on your dash gauges and ignition switch and the engine are not going to be the same. Second big problem is how each is wired. The helm probably has an ammeter instead of a voltmeter which will not match up with the engine wiring on the 84 engine because it was set up for a voltmeter.
You might consider changing the instruments and wiring harnesses from the newer boat to keep things equal.
I would bet the differences in the old and new setups are why you are having all the problems with it's running, and why the wires had a meltdown.
In the link Eric gave you manual 2 covers the wiring from your old engine and helm, you will need manual #3 as well if you want to find the wiring on your newer engine. http://boatinfo.no/lib/library.html

I moved this over to the electrical forum, if you will look at the top of this forum and read the stickies you will find some other wiring info and diagrams for the rest of the systems on your boat.

 

[Amodave]

Re: About to attempt a full re-wire on my 74 Starcraft.

Guys,

Thanks for the help on this topic. Once I got to the lake, I have figured out that the wiring is the least of my problems, at least if I prioritize all the issues!! I am going to browse all the forums and I WILL win this boat battle I have bought into. Currently I am having outdrive problems and a knock in the front of the motor. I have a feeling I am getting ready to call iboats forums my home away from home. I can do this, it aint nothing but a project. Getting ready to add some pics and my info first though. Thanks again for the help here, don't go too far though.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Silvertip]

Re: About to attempt a full re-wire on my 74 Starcraft.

Any re-wire must begin with a very thoroughly thought out and detailed diagram of the project. Without this step you will end up with a mess similar to what you have.