What Did I do to my E-tec????

Salty Tricks

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
161
2009 E-tec 90hp. I went to the boat to mount a few gauges (water pressure and trim) Mind you I was not hooking them up yet...just wanted to mount the gauges to the panel. I took of the cowling to search where I would tap the WP gauge and found the plug ..closed the cowling did not touch anything. went to the console to see if i could find the wires in the harness for the trim...again I am not hooking anything up just scope out what is needed. I did move some of the wires around to while I was looking for the trim wires but i didn't tug or excessively pull on anything. I go to turn the key to check what the battery voltage I have from the I-command....and nothing. went back to the motor and discovered the main fuse by the starter was blown. Replaced fuse turned key a blew the new fuse. Put a third fuse in and again it blew when I turned the key. Put in a 4th fuse and tilted motor out of the water and walked away. What the hell did I do?? The boat ran great all day today so I'm thinking I must of did something.
 

adamjr

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jul 23, 2009
Messages
272
Re: What Did I do to my E-tec????

It sounds like maybe you had a frayed wire to begin with and by moving the wires around to locate the ones you needed you might have grounded something out. That may not be much help but better to have found it out while docked then after hitting a wave and jolting the wire and getting stranded.
 

Salty Tricks

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
161
Re: What Did I do to my E-tec????

Actually it appears in my searching for the trim gauge wires in the harness I brought the battery/ign wire together with another and shorted the ign switch. Now that I sorted that out I can't get the trim gauge to work once I wired it correctly.
 

wilde1j

Vice Admiral
Joined
Apr 15, 2002
Messages
5,964
Re: What Did I do to my E-tec????

Boy, you must be brutal on the wires. E-Tecs have nice, clean harnesses with nothing loose or flying around.

A shop manual would be a real help ... I have one for my 175's and it has a complete wiring diagrams, among other things.
 

Salty Tricks

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
161
Re: What Did I do to my E-tec????

Actually Jim
The dealer left the trim gauge wires from the harness just hanging without any insulation on the ring terminals. True I must have brought the terminals together which created the short, but I assure you it could have easily happened on its own from normal vibration the way the were left sitting. BTW the E-tec is awesome!
 

Salty Tricks

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
161
Re: What Did I do to my E-tec????

Actually Jim
The dealer left the trim gauge wires from the harness just hanging without any insulation on the ring terminals. True I must have brought the terminals together which created the short, but I assure you it could have easily happened on its own from normal vibration the way the were left sitting. BTW the E-tec is awesome!
 

wilde1j

Vice Admiral
Joined
Apr 15, 2002
Messages
5,964
Re: What Did I do to my E-tec????

Shame on the dealer for not taping up the ring lugs. Yah, I love my E-Tecs, too. Lot's of low end torque, great fuel economy, quiet, no smoke, start @ 450 RPM like they've been running for days, even for the first start of the season. Btw, my cousin just traded his 90 E-Tec for a 115 ... says it's even smoother.
 
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