complete rewire

[croSSed]

I'm restoring a '77 Cee Bee Avenger. I have to completely rewire the thing. Electronics is NOT my strong suit. I have no idea really how to procede. I know a few things, but not many. I want all my hot wiring to go to a fuse block under my dash in case of dead short. Also, I want to have all my electronics hooked up to my ignition switch. I'm using a '87 Merc 115 with a new Commander control box. I'm going to using a fuel gauge hooked to a stern 18 gal. tank, a tach, speedo (mechnical, no wiring except for running lights), and water press. (also mechanical). I also have a switch to my running lights. Any help with how to wire the thing would be appreciated. Thanks!

http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n103/tadpoleig/

TG

 

[Silvertip]

Re: complete rewire

This should help.

 

[cjames]

Re: complete rewire

Crossed, one thing you may want to think about with having all your electronics running through your ignition switch, you must have the key switch on to run anything, this may or may not be good for the ignition system on your engine. Also, when you shut down the engine, you will shut off anything else hooked to that circuit. It may be a better idea to seperate the systems, and only power the starter relay, and guages with the ignition switch. I'll shut up, silvertips drawing says it all.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: complete rewire

Crossed, My '74 16' Avenger has an 18 gal bow tank and a Merc 1500, for power. I think the gas tank in the bow adds a bit of balance to the boat, however it does hold the bow down, which is not optimum.

 

[burroak]

Re: complete rewire

I'm restoring a '77 Cee Bee Avenger. I have to completely rewire the thing. Electronics is NOT my strong suit. I have no idea really how to procede. I know a few things, but not many. I want all my hot wiring to go to a fuse block under my dash in case of dead short. Also, I want to have all my electronics hooked up to my ignition switch. I'm using a '87 Merc 115 with a new Commander control box. I'm going to using a fuel gauge hooked to a stern 18 gal. tank, a tach, speedo (mechnical, no wiring except for running lights), and water press. (also mechanical). I also have a switch to my running lights. Any help with how to wire the thing would be appreciated. Thanks!

http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n103/tadpoleig/

TG

I have the wiring diagram that you need. It is too large to be attached on iboats in a reply. If you will PM me, I'll attach it to an e-mail. There is a great wiring diagram for larger boats on the Stingray Boats website but the site is not the most user friendly. If you think you may want to use that one, let me know and I'll give you the details for digging it out of the site.

I have e-mailed this wiring diagram to several members and they have found it useful and I don't mind sending it as an attachment to an e-mail, but if anyone knows how to get it on iboats, I'll send it to you. It will be a good resource for questions such as these.

 

[croSSed]

Re: complete rewire

Thanks, everybody, for all the help. I appreciate it.

TG

 

[croSSed]

Re: complete rewire

Okay... Now that I've actually started trying to wire this thing the wiring schematics I've acquired are only PARTIALLY helpful. For instance, my navigation light switch. It has two poles. What do I do with these poles? Do i have one wire from battery hot come to one pole and then have nav. hot leads come off this pole? Does the other pole go to ground? Does it matter which pole is hot or ground? The above wire schematic doesn't show anything about how to hook wires to this switch. In a fuse block what amp fuses should I use? How do I get hot wiring from my ignition to my fuse block? Where in my control box/outboard/? do I route hot wiring from? I guess what I'm saying is the schematics I've seen show me how to hook wires to my accesories, even what colored wire to use, but they don't show me where to hook them to to get electricity.

TG

 

[burroak]

Re: complete rewire

Okay... Now that I've actually started trying to wire this thing the wiring schematics I've acquired are only PARTIALLY helpful. For instance, my navigation light switch. It has two poles. What do I do with these poles? Do i have one wire from battery hot come to one pole and then have nav. hot leads come off this pole? Does the other pole go to ground? Does it matter which pole is hot or ground? The above wire schematic doesn't show anything about how to hook wires to this switch. In a fuse block what amp fuses should I use? How do I get hot wiring from my ignition to my fuse block? Where in my control box/outboard/? do I route hot wiring from? I guess what I'm saying is the schematics I've seen show me how to hook wires to my accesories, even what colored wire to use, but they don't show me where to hook them to to get electricity.

TG

Go to cmsquick.com; you'll find out how to wire individual components. It has a wealth of that kind of info.

However, from the questions that you are asking and knowing what schematics you have; you need to find someone experienced it this stuff and pay him to do the boat.

Trial and error will fry some items that are costly.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: complete rewire

http://www.iboats.com/Seasense_Fuse...18600392--list_time.1181307919--view_id.56052

this is the simplest fuse panel and buss bar i know. you bring a #10 wire from battery postive post to the center post on the right bar. the wire to the swith attaches to the screw on the center bar, goes to one side of the switch, the others side of the switch goes to the light etc. the ground from the light goes to a screw on the left bar. you use a # 10 wire from the center post back to the negative post on battery. the size of the fuse, depends on what you are connecting. lights 10 to 15 amp. also it is a really good idea to put an inline fuse of around 20 amps in the postive, wire near the battery, this way it there is a dead short it doesn't burn up all your wiring. thats as simple as i can make this.

 

[croSSed]

Re: complete rewire

TD, it just so happens that I made a trip to my local West Marine. The clerk that I talked to was a 12v expert. He sold me a nearly identical fuse block. I now have my nav. lights all good to go. However, I really don't like the idea of having the #10 wire to my fuse block come directly from my battery. I'd really like this wire routed to my ignition. That way when I shut down power, everything goes off and doesn't potentially drain the battery. There are circuits in a car all over the place that are connected to ignition power. I know, I rewired a car, BUT I simply followed the wiring diagram for that car: Like following a recipe when you're making a meal. In this present case, I'm making the wiring up as I go. Anyway, is it advisable to have one hot lead wire going to my fuse box to power my accesories?

TG

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: complete rewire

i perfer not going thru ignition, if you like with the inline fuse, you can go to a main switch, 30 amp before the fuse box.( positive battery to one side of main switch, other side of main switch to fuse block) this kills all power to accessories, and you don't have anything accidentally left on to kill the battery.. i do run an automatic bilge pump directly off the battery. that way if docked and a shower comes up the pump will automaticly come on.

 

[croSSed]

Re: complete rewire

TD, fair enough; however, I still want to run everything off the ignition switch. The only accessories I have are nav. lights, fuel gauge and tach. Eventually I'll have a fish finder, but beyond that I doubt I'll ever run any other accessories. I want the tach and fuel gauge to be hooked the the ignition for sure. So, where in my '87 Merc 115's wiring do I hook my #10 wire to so that when the ignition is off it's cold, and when it's on it's hot? I have the wiring diagram for the motor in front of me, but I couldn't figure out where to find such a wire to save my life. Thanks.

TG

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: complete rewire

you do not want nav lights and fishfinder on the ignition. that is too much draw on the switch and engine wiring harness. and if you are at anchor, your ignition has to be on. your fishfinder will shut down everytime you start the engine, or will have a surge of power. the fuel guage and tach are fine off the engine. there should be a plug receptacle in the front of your merc control for the tach. power for fuel guage on the run post of the ignition switch.

 

[croSSed]

Re: complete rewire

You know I think I'm going to run the fuel gauge through another dash switch. As to the tach: There is one wire that goes to the engine that is the pick-up for rpms. This has a 4 or 5 plug recepticle that is already all wired. But, there is apparently another hot wire for it to actually register on the tach. I had this attached to "constant hot" to begin with. However, when I first hooked it up the needle moved which tells me that there is juice going to the tach, and that there is a constant drain on the battery hooked up this way. Is that correct? I had this tach in another boat (that I did not wire) and the needle used to not move until you turned the ignition on, showing that there was 0 rpms. When I shut the ign. off the needle bounced up a little (like 1000 rpms) and came to rest. How do I hook this hot wire up to the ignition? You said to connect it to the ignition switch. How? Thanks.

Oh, also: As I'm wiring the fuel tank, how do I ground the tank itself?

TG

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: complete rewire

on that i'm not sure as i'm not that familar with your controller. shoot that question into the merc outboard forum.. as far as the tank, here's some good stuff i refer to:

http://www.teleflexmarine.com/cgi-bin/library.cgi?site=home&type=us&library=1019

 

[croSSed]

Re: complete rewire

TD, that link to Teleflex wiring diagrams was EXACTLY what I needed, not only for the fuel tank, but for the tach as well. Thanks a million!

TG

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: complete rewire

we aim to please. good luck, let me know how it goes.