Rewiring my o/b

[brother chris]

Okay, My wires are crumbling apart on my 1978 55hp Evinrude and I need to replace them.
I've been looking around this website and cannot for the life of me find any info on what gauge of wire I need. My manual does not refer to any kind of gauge wire either.
I am not replacing the battery to engine wire, just the wiring from the solenoid area.
I know it has to be marine grade, but does anyone have any idea what gauge to use.
Thanks,
BC

 

[gm280]

Re: Rewiring my o/b

I'm surprised your shop manual doesn't specify the gauge for the wires because my '76 Johnson 40HP shop manual does for every wire in the schematic diagram. In fact I'm presently rebuilding a compete new wiring harness for my OB now. The wire in my harness is so corroded that it won't take any solder anymore so I am making a complete new harness for the entire engine. I'm using 14 gauge stranded wire for everything but the tachometer wire. I used 18 gauge for that wire. My manual stated 18 gauge wire for most everything with a few 16 gauge wires. But I went with a little heavier wire (14 gauge) because of the available colors I found to match the original colors. You could easily use all 16 gauge wire except the wire going to and from the battery and not have any troubles... The battery wires for my schematic diagram are listed as 6 gauge for the positive and negative runs... Hope this helped...