No power to my gauges

[fishfeatures]

Hi,

Went out yesterday, and when I turned the key I noticed they had no power going to them. Battery,trim, and tach not working and no lights on all6 of them. So I reckon it's a supply prob. Now the power comes from the remote as does the tach wire. All connections seem fine, and hve been double checked. Anyone any suggestions?

 

[NYBo]

Re: No power to my gauges

If your boat is wired properly, the gauges get power from the motor's electrical system via the ignition switch.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: No power to my gauges

type of boat and motor would help. if its a outboard look under the cowl near starter solinoid for a inline fuse.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

type of boat and motor would help. if its a outboard look under the cowl near starter solinoid for a inline fuse.

it's a johnson 1990 60hp. motor starts and runs so fuse is fine, checked just to be sure too.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

If your boat is wired properly, the gauges get power from the motor's electrical system via the ignition switch.

It was wired my me but it was a resto project, which has been up and running for about 5 months now. Never had any hassle with electrics till now and i've wired the pump, gauges , fishfinder, 12v , added a t&t which needed a homemade diode box, so am quite happy that all was ok. Now everything works except the gauges which do take their
pos
neg
tach pulse
via pigtail from the remote so maybe the switch is dodgy. How do i test this out......??

 

[NYBo]

Re: No power to my gauges

Start at the switch. Is the lead to the instruments clean and tight? Do you get 12V when the key is in the run position?

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: No power to my gauges

ok have you got a volt meter that you can test one of the gauges you could have a + or - problem as the gauges are daisy chained so a bad connection on one makes the rest fail. http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=225399 post #4 is a diagram silvertips made to show how most dash's are wired

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

I'll see if i have 12v when the key is in the run position.

gauges are wired as that Glenn P.O.P. , I think it's the info i used when looking to wire up the dash.

I'll throw a meter on them so and see what happens.

Not too familiar with the use of a multimeter but I guess red lead to pos on gauge and black lead to neg on gauge , see what i get volts wise?? may seem like a stupid one but am not used to them as I don't really ever work with them.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: No power to my gauges

set the meter to volts dc thats the straight line with the dotted line under it then red is pos black neg if the you use the wrong probe it will proberly read a negative number instead of positive. start by testing the battery to make sure you have it working then test the gauges. if you get no reading try the pos prob on the + side of the gauge and the neg on the battery neg post if still no reading then you have a supply issue and more back towards the controller and key switch

 

[bruceb58]

Re: No power to my gauges

Could be the ground for the gauges. Need to check that as well.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

set the meter to volts dc thats the straight line with the dotted line under it then red is pos black neg if the you use the wrong probe it will proberly read a negative number instead of positive. start by testing the battery to make sure you have it working then test the gauges. if you get no reading try the pos prob on the + side of the gauge and the neg on the battery neg post if still no reading then you have a supply issue and more back towards the controller and key switch

cheers for that glenn , will update later on.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

Ok so battery reads 12.73v , then gauges read nothing, so traced back to the remote outlet and there I only got 0.17v with key on , so looks like the keys witch is the prob.
What's next? Open up remote and test what ?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: No power to my gauges

So whats the voltage at the input of the switch?

There is a fuse that feeds the switch form a fuse panel typically. Check the fuse and voltage that feeds that fuse.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: No power to my gauges

you tested between the gauge and the ground post of the battery like i asked? the reason for this test is to rule out a ground problem as taking the control to pieces is easy putting it back together can be a pain so trying to make sure thats where we are going. if theres no voltage between the gauge + and the battery neg post key on (make a jumper out of scrap wire to reach if you have to as the probe leads are proberly to short i like to twist a wire to the battery ground then twist the other end to a nail in a scrap of wood so i know i have a good ground to test against) still read nothing then open the controller and look for the red wire on the back of the switch that should be 12+ make sure you do not short this to any other terminals with the tip of the meter probe (black tap the probe so only the tip is showing to avoid touching 2 terminals at the same time) if that reads 12v then turn switch and check the acc wire for 12v if it doesnt read 12vdc+ then the problem is back towards the motor.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

So whats the voltage at the input of the switch?

There is a fuse that feeds the switch form a fuse panel typically. Check the fuse and voltage that feeds that fuse.

isn't the fuse the one on the wiring loom on the motor? if this isn't working I wouldn't be able to start the motor.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

you tested between the gauge and the ground post of the battery like i asked? the reason for this test is to rule out a ground problem as taking the control to pieces is easy putting it back together can be a pain so trying to make sure thats where we are going. if theres no voltage between the gauge + and the battery neg post key on (make a jumper out of scrap wire to reach if you have to as the probe leads are proberly to short i like to twist a wire to the battery ground then twist the other end to a nail in a scrap of wood so i know i have a good ground to test against) still read nothing then open the controller and look for the red wire on the back of the switch that should be 12+ make sure you do not short this to any other terminals with the tip of the meter probe (black tap the probe so only the tip is showing to avoid touching 2 terminals at the same time) if that reads 12v then turn switch and check the acc wire for 12v if it doesnt read 12vdc+ then the problem is back towards the motor.

Didn't gert much time over the past couple of days to go at this but, didn't check the gnd from the battery and + at the gauge last time, so did this today and I do get the same reading that i get if i do the + and - of the battery.
I guess my issue is the gnd somewhere then ....?

 

[Lyle29464]

Re: No power to my gauges

use a known ground. If you FF works borrow that one.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: No power to my gauges

Didn't gert much time over the past couple of days to go at this but, didn't check the gnd from the battery and + at the gauge last time, so did this today and I do get the same reading that i get if i do the + and - of the battery.
I guess my issue is the gnd somewhere then ....?

yep the ground is broke or has a bad connection between the dash/controller and the battery/motor. the ground could be under the motor cowl look at all the balck wires to make sure there clean and tight. i dont see anything wrong with adding another ground but would rather see it pulled from the battery even though the amp draw is low so splicing to another ground would work as lyle points out

 

[Lyle29464]

Re: No power to my gauges

using a known ground was just a test. Now you need to see where your missing the supply and fix it. You should have a separate power and ground to each item. trash the daisy chain and spiced stuff.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

using a known ground was just a test. Now you need to see where your missing the supply and fix it. You should have a separate power and ground to each item. trash the daisy chain and spiced stuff.

cheers guys, I'll start the search for the problem gnd over the week and will trash the daisy chain, is it ok to use bus bars then to supply each gauge?