No Dash Power!!

derekpfeiffer

derekpfeiffer

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Apr 3, 2008
Messages
214
So I finally got the boat out on the water last weekend and while out I noticed the voltmeter was acting funny...like after floating for a little while and need to start it to move it would show like only 11v but the motor would always spin over just fine, and shortly later while running it'd show 13-13.5, so I wasn't too concerned about it. But also noticed when i would trim up or down the volt guage would drop some.

So I had a little time tonight so I grabbed my multimeter and thought I'd do some investigating...seemed to me that the problem lied in the volt guage in the dash or a wire feeding it. So I checked the battery voltage and then turned the key to on to check the voltage on the back of the guage and while reaching up in there I suddenly lost everything that's powered from the switch. the blower and other accessories still work tho. I checked the inline fuse before the switch and it's fine but no voltage going through it. I'm getting power to the power rail under the dash which is where I grabbed my power for my new LED lights i installed this winter which i don't have any clue how that would've effected the power switch.

I'm at a loss.

Any help would be great!!!

Thanks!!
 
Barnacle_Bill

Barnacle_Bill

Admiral
Joined
Feb 8, 2004
Messages
6,469
Re: No Dash Power!!

Sounds like you have a bad connection(s) somewhere. You don't say what motor but look for a blown 20 amp fuse under the cowl.
 
A

abeebe

Recruit
Joined
May 27, 2008
Messages
1
Re: No Dash Power!!

I have a simlar problem with my boat. I have an '89 Mach 1 with a MerCruiser 4.3L. The motor runs great and all guages work fine except for the volt meter. This past winter I thought I would take a look and noticed two wires on the same terminal, so I moved one back to where it should be.

I just hooked up all the hoses and fired it up and noticed none of my guages worked. I went and moved the wire back to the same terminal again, and all the guages started working again. I then disconnected everything from the guage, and then I lost everything (blower, horn etc.).

Are the guages hooked up in series like a christmas tree light? If so, could the guage be bad (no voltage getting through) and someone bypassed this guage to get the rest of them working? I haven't run an ohm meter across the meter yet, but that will be my next step.

I really like the feature of the guage, so I would like to get this working.

Thanks for any input anyone has.

Alan
 
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