bilge, tach, volt not working

[insaneasylm]

hey guys my bilge, tach, volt are not working. I have the engine out right now so my testing is limited.

first the bilge, I took out the bilge pump and hooked it straight to the battery and it works. I then tested the switch with ohm meter fliped it back and forth got a reading of .3 so that is good. next i hooked the battery up to the wires in the bilge and tested for volts at the wires by the switch nothing so must be a short some where. Or a blown fuse but i don't know if there is a fuse box some where. Also if there is a gound in the wire some where should i try to trace it or just run a couple new wires. That seems like the easiest way.

Ok testing volt gauge, I hooked the battery up to the terminals on the back of the volt gauge. I did this with the key on and off nothing. But just to make sure when you test the instuments the key needs to be on to complet the circut correct?

Last think i cann't hook up the tach straight to the motor cuz like i said it's out. So can i hook it up to a car or truck, switch the setting to 8 cyl and test it that way. thx

 

[insaneasylm]

Re: bilge, tach, volt not working

also the tach didn't work last year when i bought the boat. the bilge pump did and i think the volt was to. hard to rember.

 

[b18apwr]

Re: bilge, tach, volt not working

From reading your statement above, in regards to your volt meter, if you hooked the battery directly to the gauge and nothing happened - provided the battery was charged - then the gauge is bad. If you mean you used the existing wiring that goes through the switch and noting happened, then you need to hook the gauge directly to the battery and see if it works. If it does, chase your wiring and find the issue.

On the bilge, sounds like the pump and switch are good. You need to chase the wiring from the pump to the switch and the switch to a voltage source. You probably have a fuse panel near the gauges. You may even have something that looks like a button near the switch. Normally, you can unscrew the button and a fuse will be inside. If so, check the fuse.

On the tach, most tachs require the negative signal from your coil to the tach input wire. I would highly recommend you check the manual for your particular make/model tach. If this is the case, then yes, you could hypothetically test it with a car. Just set the tach up correctly and get the right wires on the car.

CHECK ALL YOUR DOCUMENTATION FIRST. I'm not responsible for you blowing up your car or something crazy like that. I'm just providing you with suggestions.

 

[insaneasylm]

Re: bilge, tach, volt not working

ok tested the tack on a car. Hooked up the postive and neg straight to the battery. For the signal hooked it up to the distibuter side of coil. Was that the negetive side correct.

Yep on the volt meter i just hooked it straight to the battery neg-neg, pos-pos and nothing junk correct.

The bilge still hunting down wires.