No power to my gauges

[Silvertip]

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.

Don't trash the daisy chain for the simple reason that there is not enough room on the "A" terminal of the ignition switch to attach all of those individual wires that power each gauge. The daisy chain system is just fine and only one wire need be connected to the "A" terminal. That goes to the first gauge in the string. That terminal is then jumpered to the next gauge and so on. That's the way the boat was wired and it was done that for a reason (fewer long wires and a much neater installation).

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

ok guys I think I'm in trouble ...
daisy chain or not is the least of my worries now.

I went to gnd the gauges to a working gnd for my 12v power supply and nothing happened. I then decided to disconnect the volt meter from the circuit and run power and gnd to that fro the 12v supply ( i know the 12v works as it charges my iPod) anyway i got nothing!!

I then removed the gauge and connect the 2 terminals directly to the battery and again nothing....
Now i think the tach/volt and trim gauges are bust..... Only speedo and water pressure working but of course these are not electrical but supplied by water/air.

How can i test the trim and tach to see if they may work??

 

[NYBo]

Re: No power to my gauges

You also need a valid signal for these to work, not just 12V.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

valid signal??? there is a + and - on it surely hooking it straight to the battery will provide a reading no??

 

[NYBo]

Re: No power to my gauges

No. You may get slight movement from the needle, but that's about it. The tach needs a signal from the motor's charging system, and the trim gauge needs a signal from the sending unit on the motor mounting bracket.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: No power to my gauges

If you hooked a tach directly to the battery with no signal on the "S" terminal -- what would you expect the tach to read? Same goes for the trim, same for the fuel, and same for the temp gauge if you have one. 12 volts powers the circuitry. The "S" terminal is what tells the circuitry in the gauge how to position the needle. The tach for example is a pulse counter. If there are no pulses present there is nothing to count and hence the needle sits at zero. If at any time during your poking around you put 12 volts on the "S" terminal you likely popped the gauge. Don't dash out an buy a bunch of new gauges until you get the power and ground issue resolved. If you do NOT have +12 volts on the "A" terminal of the ignition switch then there is a problem totally unrelated to the gauges. And just to repeat (if I didn't already tell you this) there is no fuse in the fuse panel for the gauges as someone mentioned earlier. The engine harness is protected by the fuse under the engine cowl.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

If you hooked a tach directly to the battery with no signal on the "S" terminal -- what would you expect the tach to read? Same goes for the trim, same for the fuel, and same for the temp gauge if you have one. 12 volts powers the circuitry. The "S" terminal is what tells the circuitry in the gauge how to position the needle. The tach for example is a pulse counter. If there are no pulses present there is nothing to count and hence the needle sits at zero. If at any time during your poking around you put 12 volts on the "S" terminal you likely popped the gauge. Don't dash out an buy a bunch of new gauges until you get the power and ground issue resolved. If you do NOT have +12 volts on the "A" terminal of the ignition switch then there is a problem totally unrelated to the gauges. And just to repeat (if I didn't already tell you this) there is no fuse in the fuse panel for the gauges as someone mentioned earlier. The engine harness is protected by the fuse under the engine cowl.

I only hooked up the volt meter gauge to the battery not any of the others as I know that they require their own sender wires too to make them read.

I better clear this up a bit,

I got 12.74v across each gauge after I found out that the harness was earthed at the starter solnoid which was a bit loose.So i scraped there to clean it up and tighten back the bolt. This sorted the power to gauges issue, but now none of the gauges read .
So i hooked the volt gauge to a different power source that works on the dash , then to the battery dirsctly and still no reading. I never touched a live wire off the "S" terminals on any of the gauges while troubleshooting this, as I installed the gauges and know that this was their signal terminal.
The fuse is under the cowling but this is ok as I mentinoed that the motor starts, if this was broken then the motor wouldn't start.

I think something has blown the 3 gauges (tach/volt/trim) as i can't get them to read, but the bulbs work in all so at least i can see them not working in the dark...

 

[Silvertip]

Re: No power to my gauges

If you have 12 volts and ground to each gauge, then MOMENTARILY short the "S" terminal to ground. The gauge should move all the way tot he right as that represents the lowest resistance reading for the sender in question. If it does, the gauge is good and the sender wire or sender itself is the issue. If the gauge does not move fully right, then the gauge is bad. But again -- that only applies if you are certain the gauge under test has +12 volts and ground.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

If you have 12 volts and ground to each gauge, then MOMENTARILY short the "S" terminal to ground. The gauge should move all the way tot he right as that represents the lowest resistance reading for the sender in question. If it does, the gauge is good and the sender wire or sender itself is the issue. If the gauge does not move fully right, then the gauge is bad. But again -- that only applies if you are certain the gauge under test has +12 volts and ground.

Ok after more head scratching, testing and crawling into the small space under the dash, i have discovered this...
all gauges are getting 12v , trim sender is sending a signal , voltmeter doesn't work nor tach. therefore somehow tach/voltmeter/trim are bust somehow or other. It's a pity as herself bought the gauge set for me as a present at christmas....

 

[Silvertip]

Re: No power to my gauges

Ok after more head scratching, testing and crawling into the small space under the dash, i have discovered this...
all gauges are getting 12v , trim sender is sending a signal , voltmeter doesn't work nor tach. therefore somehow tach/voltmeter/trim are bust somehow or other. It's a pity as herself bought the gauge set for me as a present at christmas....

I really find it hard to believe you have three gauges bad in a brand new set -- unless you popped them in the wiring process.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: No power to my gauges

please dont take this as a insult but you do have the + and - the right way on the gauge. also the strap on some has a insulated bushing only on one side make sure thats on the positive side stud when installed. it would be odd to get 3 bad in a set but not impossible (depending on the brand name) at least test the tach on diffrent pole settings before calling it dead.

as a side note: in case you have more than one battery make sure the positive and negative are on the same battery or link a wire between the negatives of the batteries

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

I really find it hard to believe you have three gauges bad in a brand new set -- unless you popped them in the wiring process.

Guys I've had the gauges in and working for the past 3-4 months and they worked perfectly no complaints, then one day i went out and the 3 of them didn't work from the time i turned the key. I was out the day before and no issues so something happened from the time i put it back on the trailer and took if off 20hrs later...

Nothing was worked on in this time and no one else was near the boat. This is why I'm assuming something happened that caused all 3 to malfunction at the one time..

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: No power to my gauges

oh i see said the blind man to his deaf dog. disconnect the dash and start the motor on ears and see what voltage you have at the battery. you might find 18-20v if the regulator is playing up. higher than normal voltage or a tach that has shorted internally could fry the 3 gauges (a bad ground can also burn up electrical items as the tac pulse is hunting a ground path and can start to take short cuts by going through other items to find a ground like the one on the fuel tank sensor especially if its grounded at the battery and not the buss with the rest of the grounds). funny thing is the volt meter should have been able to survive all of these ideas.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

found a bad connecting ground that the harness was using, I guess this caused it.

Volt meter must have got fried too as it wont read when connected direclty to the battery.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges..update

Re: No power to my gauges..update

just thought i'd give you all a quick update....

I emailed teleflex about this issue and was put in contact with a lovely Guy called Adam in Sierra International Inc. After a few mails and questions and theories , i was then pointed in the direction of Marcin who works for Veethree Electronics and Marine.
Marcin went through all the usual questions , that you guys posted above too, and his response was

"I only encounter this problem before after a lightning strike to a customers boat, if I would guess it may have been a power surge, the gauges are designed to work from 10 to 16 Volts DC. If the voltage is above that or spikes it will burn the gauge out. The volt gauge should show voltage with power ON and power connected to "I" and ground on "G" terminals, the trim gauge with power and ground connected should be pegged to one side, if you take a peace of metal and short out across the "S" and "G" terminal should cause it to move to the opposite side, this is the same for the fuel gauge.

I have been looking on line and have read about similar engines over charging the batteries with voltages above 16V, this may be the problem. If the gauges are burned out, please contact Adam and see what is needed to get these gauges replaced, Teleflex does have a 2 year warranty on these instruments.

Unfortunately this is all the information I have, please contact a marine mechanic or a Johnson/Evinrude dealer for more help on your electrical system.
"

Sierra have therefore honoured the warranty and I have just received a mail from Adam Hall saying the replacements have been sent out in the post !!

My gratitude to all here who initially diagnosed the problem, Adam and all at Sierra International and Marcin at Vethree.
thank you all.



now my last question,

If i put a 16 amp inline fuse into the 12v wire from the remote to the gauges , will this make sure I won't have the same issue again ? or do I need something else to be done??


k.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: No power to my gauges..update

Re: No power to my gauges..update

glad you have new gauges coming. a 16 amp fuse will offer no protection as amps and volts are diffrent. a 7.5 amp inline would be ok but that doesnt realy offer no spike protection and to be honest im not sure of anything that can with out affecting the volt meter

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges..update

Re: No power to my gauges..update

glad you have new gauges coming. a 16 amp fuse will offer no protection as amps and volts are diffrent. a 7.5 amp inline would be ok but that doesnt realy offer no spike protection and to be honest im not sure of anything that can with out affecting the volt meter

thanks for that Glenn.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges..update

Re: No power to my gauges..update

just wondering still on this issue, as i dont want to put in the new gauges if they are gonna go bust on me too.
Anyway is it possible that the rectifier could be throwing out too much and causing this? I do think that i may have been reading between 14-16 v on the voltmeter, and research on here says that 16v is too high charging. Could this be possible?

 

[Silvertip]

Re: No power to my gauges..update

Re: No power to my gauges..update

just wondering still on this issue, as i dont want to put in the new gauges if they are gonna go bust on me too.
Anyway is it possible that the rectifier could be throwing out too much and causing this? I do think that i may have been reading between 14-16 v on the voltmeter, and research on here says that 16v is too high charging. Could this be possible?

It is the job of the rectifier to "rectify" (convert an AC waveform to a DC voltage). As such it outputs whatever the stator provides it. It is the job of a "regulator" to regulate that output to a safe charging level. Some motors have them, and some don't. That said, it is very odd that a voltmeter is calibrated to 18 volts but fries at anything over 16 volts. Hmmmmm. I think you need to disconnect the +12volt feed to the gauges, install a hand-held voltmeter on the battery and then go for a lengthy wide open throttle run to see what the charging system is doing. If voltage is high and there is no regulator, install one.

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: No power to my gauges

Cheers will do that and report back findings. Thanks silver tip .