Wires all over the place!!!

[11craigt]

Hello, I am trying to install a radio on my boat, while simplifying all the dead-end wires that were previously installed.<br /><br />I noticed that some wires jump from one switch to another, such as my gas guage connects to my light switch or vice versa as well as some others. Could this be a way of keeping ground? Just doesn't seem right. Ended up snipping 1 little wire off the back of my gas gauge the was together with about 5 other multi colored tiny insulated wires that did nothing except run 6 feet back to the battery....one tiny one must have been hooked up, but why have all these other wires just doing nothing? Should be a fuse panel and then everything just runs into that, hot and ground for everything. Am I missing something though? 1983 18' Cobia center console, 83' Evinrude 115.

 

[s1jor]

Re: Wires all over the place!!!

alot of the guages are daisy chained to each other then run back to earth i think

 

[rottenray6402]

Re: Wires all over the place!!!

Your gauges all have lights in them which may have some burned out bulbs in a 1983 boat. These stay on all of the time the key is on in most applications so you may be dealing with lights, grounds, etc. If there isn't a fuse panel they are available through Iboats. As long as you are rewiring you should do it how you want it and it makes it a lot easier for trouble shooting later on.

 

[CalicoKid]

Re: Wires all over the place!!!

If the proper colors were used then this should help. Basically all gauges should have a blue and black wire if they have lights. They will be daisey-chained together and likely connected to your running lights switch. If the gauge requires power, and most do except water pressure and speedo, then there will be a purple wire from the ignition switch daisey-chained to each gauge that requires it. The rest of the wires found under a typical dash should be identifiable using the below:<br /><br />Red-Battery+<br />Black-Battery-<br />Purple-Ignition Power<br />Yellow/Red stripe-Starter<br />Green-Choke/Primer<br />Gray-Tach<br />Pink-Fuel Sender<br />Blue-Dash Lights<br />Brown-Bilge Pump<br />Black/White stripe-Bow Light<br />White-Stern Light<br />Tan-Temp Sender<br />Orange-Accessory Power<br />Brown/White stripe-Trim Sender<br /><br />Don't tap into the gauges for power or ground when you wire your stereo, that circuit is not intended for accessories. You need a seperate fused circuit, positive and ground, using an orange and a black wire to power your stereo.<br /><br />If you have a fuse panel go from there. If not I've seen a neat battery post terminal buss that multiple inline fuse taps could be connected to but I hate to tap off the battery post, it's not pretty.<br /><br />Your stray mystery wires might be the remnants of a previous motor's wiring harness or some long gone accessories. What color are they? Do you have a fuse panel of any kind?

 

[11craigt]

Re: Wires all over the place!!!

Hey s1jor, rottenray6402 & CalicoKid - thanks for the replies. Makes sense now. I had an old fuse panel that I cleaned up and got my fish finder working and my stereo. Took me about 3 hours of running around to finally say the hell with it, I'll just clean up the old one. Home Depot, Radio Shack, Auto Zone, Pep Boys...nobody even knew what I was looking for..."Nah, we don't carry such a thing" - everytime. <br /><br />The fuel gauge has me worried though. I don't know if I snipped a ground or "hot" wire - can't see up in there and can't remove the guage as the stupid plastic screws that hold it are disintegrating when I try to back them out. All I know is that I left about 3" of wire hanging off the back of the guage.What is the worst that can happen if I make a bad guess hooking it back up and rerunning the wrongwire back to the battery? Send a charge to the gas tank and Poof!???

 

[rwidman]

Re: Wires all over the place!!!

Originally posted by anchorthis:<br /> Hey s1jor, rottenray6402 & CalicoKid - thanks for the replies. Makes sense now. I had an old fuse panel that I cleaned up and got my fish finder working and my stereo. Took me about 3 hours of running around to finally say the hell with it, I'll just clean up the old one. Home Depot, Radio Shack, Auto Zone, Pep Boys...nobody even knew what I was looking for..."Nah, we don't carry such a thing" - everytime. .......................

Don't buy your marine electrical supplies at Home Depot or Radio Shack. Even if you find what you think you want, it's unlikely to hold up in a marine environment. The marine centers carry a wide selection of marine grade electrical parts and can order many additional items.

 

[CalicoKid]

Re: Wires all over the place!!!

anchorthis, I don't think you'll blow up the boat but you might wreck your fuel gauge or the sender in the tank.<br /><br />It might help you to pull out your seat so you have some room to crawl under the console and get a look. I wouldn't hook anything up without knowing what it is if I were you. In case you do and everything goes dead there is a fuse in an inline fuse holder inside your engine hood that protects the ignition switch, system gauges etc., just for reference...