Wiring Questions on a 78 150 Johnson

[28sstony]

First a little background, I bought an unpowered 78 Whaler, with what appears to be original Evinrude top mount throttle/shift controls and a seperate key switch. As luck would have it I picked up a 78 Johnson w/out controls but it came with the remote control box and the engine end of the wire harness.

The wiring under the helm has been completely gutted prior to me buying the boat, so I dont have much to work with. I have a Seloc manual for the engine am left scratching my head on a few things. The diagram in the book shows a 3 conductor plug connection going into the remote control box (I assume originally it was part of a harness coming from the helm, it supposedly has a purple, grey, and black wire. This plug connection and or harness from the helm is long gone on this boat.

1st. as per the manual- The purple wire in the non existent plug seems to route thru a horn then on to terminal A on the key, then somehwere on into the motor, WHERE DOES THE PURPLE WIRE ORIGINATE FROM?

2nd. as per the manual- The Grey wire in the non existent plug seems to turn into purple at some point in the harness and terminate in an unlabled strip in the diagram. WHERE DOES THE GREY WIRE ORIGINATE FROM, AND WHAT IS ITS PURPOSE?

3rd. as per the manual- The tan wire comming off of the motor ties into a horn, I have had the throttle shift controls appart and there is no horn in there, or anywhere else in the helm that I can find. WHAT DO I DO WITH THE TAN WIRE AND THE PURPLE WIRE MENTIONED ABOVE IF THERE IS NO HORN?

4th. Aside from the 3 red/green/blue trim wires coming out of the throttle/shift control there is a black 2 conductore wire hanging there, is this the neutral saftey wire?

Thanks in advance for any help on theese matters.

 

[emdsapmgr]

Re: Wiring Questions on a 78 150 Johnson

I'd suggest getting an original OEM manual. The original ones have color diagrams of the engine, control box and remote trim box. Nice and easy to understand. You can get a reprinted one from the original printer-Ken Cook Co, in Milwaukee. 414-466-6060. When you call them, ask if the manual is reprinted in color. If they only have black and white avail, it is still ok to use, as the wire colors are indicated with arrows and text. The purple wire on the key switch goes to the choke, through the bottom post on the engine terminal board. The tan wires at both head temp sensors goe to the control box horn, then turns into the purple on the A terminal on the key switch. The red, green, blue wires out of the handle are the trim wires. You'll have to trace the two black, as someone may have added them for some reason. There should be a grey wire at the control box, the signal wire for the tach. Someone may have added a positive and negative (that black wire pair) to run the tach. If you have no horn, you'll need to add one per the wiring diagrams to make sure you are warned of any overheat situation.

 

[28sstony]

Re: Wiring Questions on a 78 150 Johnson

Thanks, also do the large hot and ground leads comming out of the motor go direct to the batterey posts? There was another 3'ish long piece of large guage pos. and neg. cable thrown in the box of parts, do those go from the batterey to the solenoid in the remote junction box? Is the solenoid in that box what they call the "primer solenoid" ?

Sorry for all the relatively dumb questions, this is my first outboard boat and the harness and junction box came thrown in a box compleltely dissasembled.

 

[emdsapmgr]

Re: Wiring Questions on a 78 150 Johnson

On the older engines, the power trim box was remoted mounted. It had a set of heavy cables, similar to the ones for the engine starter. The solenoid in the box controls the trim motor. The inside of the box cover should have a color wiring diagram for the trim system. You engine does not have a primer solenoid, but a solenoid that pulls the choke butterflys shut when the key is pushed in. Fyi, my 79 only had choke butterflys on two of the three carbs.