NEMA Cable thru Rigging Tube Advice

[snagroms]

Looking for tips & tricks / do's or don'ts on fishing a Lowrance N2K cable from the Yamaha F150 thru the rigging tube on my new Sea Hunt. I've seen a few pictures here and there but looking for advice before I go ripping into the shiny new baby. Once I get the cable thru the rigging tube, I'll be fine pulling cables (transducers and NEMA 2K) to the console and connecting all of it up.

 

[Pez Vela]

Re: NEMA Cable thru Rigging Tube Advice

I had to do it on each of my twin F150's. Take apart what you can, and turn the motor to make the angles easier. I usually start with SS piano wire to get things started. Try going in both directions to see which gets you the furthest before hanging up. Allocate a ridiculous amount of time to do something very simple. Maybe you'll get lucky.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: NEMA Cable thru Rigging Tube Advice

Tie a piece of string to the handles of a typical plastic grocery bag, or as much of the bag as will fit through the tube.
Place a Vacuum Cleaner/Shop Vac hose at the far end and suck the plastic and string through the tube.
Pulling a string us a lot easier than pushing one!

Use the string to pull your wires. Pull another string along with the wires and leave it in the tube for future use.

 

[snagroms]

Re: NEMA Cable thru Rigging Tube Advice

Thanks for the tips.

Pez any problems or concern with the fuel line in there? How'd you get the NEMA end thru the gromet? So instead of a quick deal Friday evening and then fishing on Saturday I probably need all day Saturday

Uncle - Wish i could vacuum a line thru but the rigging tube is full with the harness, battery cables, shifter cables, and a fuel line.

 

[Pez Vela]

Re: NEMA Cable thru Rigging Tube Advice

Pez any problems or concern with the fuel line in there? How'd you get the NEMA end thru the gromet? So instead of a quick deal Friday evening and then fishing on Saturday I probably need all day Saturday

Yes, I was concerned with damaging the fuel line, and anything else in there. I bent the end of my SS wire into a very small loop so that I did not introduce a sharp, pointy thing into the tube. If by grommet, you're talking about the rubber bushing/clamp pictured under the engine cowling (click to enlarge), I just disassembled it and went from there. I did this some time ago so I don't remember all of the specifics. Getting the wire through is just the beginning. Maneuvering the NMEA cable through is always the hard part. Now I used a Raymarine "stripped end spur cable" to pass through the rigging tube, before I spliced it to a Yamaha "pigtail bus." Your Lowrance cable may have a connector which poses and even bigger problem, but where there's a will, there's a way.