Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

[daye]

Hey guys!

We bought a 87' 189V Stratos with an Evinrude 200xp outboard two years ago. Steering cable needed to be replaced and it needed to get a good nice clean, but as we were very busy, we never really got the boat ready. So we decided to sell it now. The only problem is that we accidentally disconnected a bunch of cables when we replaced the steeling cables and now the tilt won't work anymore. How much does it cost to get the cables hooked up again again?

We were first thinking to sell it to a very good price (2700, "rusty" trailer included) and let the new owners get the electric hooked up, but this backfired today when the owner brought a guy who presented himself as THE mechanic. Took the hood off the engine and looked at it. Did not run it, no test, just looked at it. He did not even look at the electric or anything else. He then pulled the buyer aside and talked to him a couple of feet away. I could hear stuff like "I can hook you up with a better boat" and "this engine is no good" and stuff. This is bull**** as the engine runs like a baby! When I asked him if he would like us to turn it on he said no. In the end we did not sell the boat and this guy who was supposed to look at the electric is probably selling my buyer his or his friend's boat.

Now we decided to hook the electric up before we put it on the market again to avoid this from happening again. Does anyone here know how much it will cost us? My husband was medically discharged from the military, so we don't really have the money to get ripped off by a boat mechanic.


Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

The buyers are going to assume that anything that can not be shown to be operating, is broken.
More than one buyer has been burned by a seller stating, "It will work just fine if you just hook it back up!"

If everything can not be show to be working, the boat is not ready to sell.
It is going to be $50-100 an hour for however long it takes a shop to try to figure out what used to go where!
Detailed Pictures of the wiring may allow us to figure it out for you.

Where are you located?

 

[daye]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

Thanks for your reply. I live near Annapolis in MD. I understand that buying something not ready is not as attractive as buying it ready, but that is why we knocked off a GREAT deal off the price. That was the reason why the boat mechanic came down here with the buyer. To have a look at the electric and give an estimate. He didn't look at the electric though, instead he circled the boat once, looked at the engine and told the buyer it would not be worth it. That is bull****, we already had the engine looked at by another guy. So basically, the mechanic stole us the buyer for his own boat. I told this story to a friend and he said that something like this happened to him as well.

To prevent this from happening again we will have the electric done and then sell the boat to a waaaaaaay better price. Just wanted to get an idea what it will cost us. Boat mechanics can be like auto mechanics, if you know what I mean...

Any recommendations for mechanics in MD?

Thanks!

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

Being from Ohio, I have no idea about MD Mechanics. And I do all my own work anyway.

If the problem truly is, "... we accidentally disconnected a bunch of cables when we replaced the steeling cables and now the tilt won't work anymore", Why not just hook them back up yourself.

We love solving problems for people 500 miles away!
Detailed Pictures of the wiring may allow us to figure it out for you.
Plus we work for free!

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

tilt and trim is under the cowling and it is connected by male/female plugs so unless you cut wires or removed screws it should be plug and play (There is a inline fuse near the starter for tilt/trim that you will need to check also). We can help you fix the problem if you can get a few pictures of the motor with the cowling removed.

 

[daye]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

We love solving problems for people 500 miles away!
Detailed Pictures of the wiring may allow us to figure it out for you.
Plus we work for free!

Wow! Are you serious???? That would be awesome!!!!!

And yes, the problem truly are the cables we accidentally disconnected. It is a different story if it was smart to mess with the boat the first place, but at least we got the steering cables in and the steering works again(original problem)! : D

I will tell my husband to take pictures of it. If you manage to teach and tell us how to hook up the cables from 500 miles away then you will not be UncleWillie to me anymore, you will be "Boat-God"!

I will post them this evening!

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

Wow! Are you serious???? That would be awesome!!!!!

Dead serious! Glenn is more than capable also. (Despite what Pam thinks!) J/K
It is whole reason we are on the forum. Looking for others problems.

The One thing we do ask, and seldom get...
is that you answer our questions the first time they are asked, and follow the directions we give you. Seriously!

Do you have a Voltmeter available?

Bill.

 

[NYBo]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

It is whole reason we are on the forum. Looking for others problems.

Not the whole reason. We also like to spend other people's money!

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

Not the whole reason. We also like to spend other people's money!

We like doing that too!, but we always do it under the pretense of SAVING them money! :laugh:

 

[daye]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

Wow! Are you serious???? That would be awesome!!!!!

Dead serious! Glenn is more than capable also. (Despite what Pam thinks!) J/K
It is whole reason we are on the forum. Looking for others problems.

The One thing we do ask, and seldom get...
is that you answer our questions the first time they are asked, and follow the directions we give you. Seriously!

Do you have a Voltmeter available?

Bill.

No voltmeter. Sorry : (

Alright...Let us start with the cables that are obvious and not hidden anywhere and let us hope that it is going to be as simple as that! If not, some other cables might got disconnected when he pushed the steering cables trough the part we cannot see openly. Another thing, pls have a look at the battery hook up. Could this be a reason, too? My husband and his friend just randomly tried different cables until the engine finally turned on again! Does not mean that it is the perfect cable/battery combination. Maybe it is doing the job for the motor but not for the tilt?

I had problems uploading the pics, so I put them on one of my websites. And before one of the admin gets the crazy idea that all of this was just so I could place a no follow link of my German website on the boat forum in the US, em, come on, please think again...
I will remove the link after we are done working on this issue.

Here are the pics: Kontakt - Geburtstag Geschenkideen

One blue cable is just hanging down. looks like it got pulled out something. 2 black cables are disconnected, their endings look like they could fit into each other but they don't. two red cables are disconnected, too. they have weird white plastic endings...
And then there is this old battery that we messed with a bit, but it does not seem to be connected to the tilt. It was like this when we bought it.

Also, we put cables randomly on the new battery. engine works, but tilt doesn't.

Thank you so much and I hope that any of this makes sense to you...

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?



A= relay controls for tilt
b=engine or tilt fuse may be both (check this fuse)
c=2 pin connector for tilt gauge'
d=3 pin connector for tilt pump
e=power side of solenoid that tilt will get power from maybe via fuse A but look for another fuse
f=additional non factory tilt switch
g=where they cut in the tilt switch F
H and J= Probably a fishfinder/depth finder that use to be installed

Look at the wiring near letter F. I can not see it in the picture there should be 5 wires we are interested in the red - blue with white stripe - green with white stripe......what are they connected to they should go to the switch F then join another set of wires the same color

under the dash wiring has nothing to do with tilt and trim that's a different nightmare that can be sorted one wire at a time.

 

[daye]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

View attachment 208327View attachment 208328View attachment 208329View attachment 208330View attachment 208331

A= relay controls for tilt
b=engine or tilt fuse may be both (check this fuse)
c=2 pin connector for tilt gauge'
d=3 pin connector for tilt pump
e=power side of solenoid that tilt will get power from maybe via fuse A but look for another fuse
f=additional non factory tilt switch
g=where they cut in the tilt switch F
H and J= Probably a fishfinder/depth finder that use to be installed

Look at the wiring near letter F. I can not see it in the picture there should be 5 wires we are interested in the red - blue with white stripe - green with white stripe......what are they connected to they should go to the switch F then join another set of wires the same color

under the dash wiring has nothing to do with tilt and trim that's a different nightmare that can be sorted one wire at a time.

wire nightmare continues. please check out the link again to see the new pictures. every picture has a description if you click on them, but here is a short summary:

three wires ( green purple blue) go from tilt to join other wires near the battery. some of them go to the engine, some of them go to the front of the boat and the steering. none of the wires are connected to the battery and I wonder if this is supposed to be like this?
tilt makes clicking sound but does not move the engine. OMG, so many wires...I am so impressed that any of this makes sense to you!

Thank you so much
Kontakt - Geburtstag Geschenkideen

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

did you check the fuse and look for another one that goes from the battery side of the starter solenoid to the trim relay box. This is where the trim motor will get its power from. Also you said that the trim is making a clicking sound. Is it the trim motor that's between the boat and the motor or the relay box that's marked as A that's clicking (please be very pacific if this is a single click when you hold the switch or a buzzing clicking sound)

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Any idea what it might coast to hook up the electric on a 87' Stratos 189V?

looked at the new pics you added and it doesn't look that bad. At least they kept the blue and green the same color all the way from front to back. Power should come from the motor and goes via the red wire (also spliced to purple in some sections) to the switch's I guess you have 2 or 3 switch's then when the switch is toggled the power either comes back on the blue or the green wire this makes the relay on the motor close (click) that sends a separate or the same power to the trim motor. If The relay is buzzing then it has a poor connection somewhere if its clicking then it has a blown fuse, bad ground or a bad trim pump. If this is not simple (something you can see) then you will need to buy a cheap volt meter as that will tell us what the problem is and I or someone else can tell you how to take a reading to see if the trim pump is getting power.