Category Archives: Testing

Cable Crimp Complicit?

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Kevin,

The main DC voltage of my pontoon boat’s marine electrical drops when my running lights, electronics, and radio are on.

  • The drop is around 6 to 10 volts.
  • The main DC power on my boat wiring is 4 gauge and the run is about 12 ft.
  • I’ve got two 8d batteries on a duel switch. I only use these batteries for accessories only, not for starting that boat engine.

    • Multimeter

Do you have any suggestions? The batteries are fairly new this past season. Before any draw the battry voltage is 12.6 volts

Thank you!

Barry

Hi Barry,

Check all of your connections – especially where the boat battery cables connect to the terminals.

A bad crimp will cause a high resistance point that will give a higher voltage reading with low draw, but a low voltage reading with a high draw.

Let me know what you find,

Kevin

Three questions. Three answers.

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Hi Kevin,

Two questions…

  1. Solder or crimp terminals?
  2. How do I select proper wire sizes?

Oh wait, make that three. Fuses or circuit breakers?

I have a Hurricane pontoon boat that’s starting to cause me some problems and I’m going to redo all of the boat wiring.

Thanks,Godfrey dash

Barry

Hi Bill,

  1. If you are going to solder terminals, they really need to have a strain relief on the wire near the connection because the wire gets brittle.
  2. Use my wire size calculator to help decide your wire size.
  3. Circuit breakers are simple to reset and you never need to worry about the being replaced with an incorrect size. If you decide to buy breakers, make sure they are ignition protected if you are using them in your engine room or near stored fuel. ATC (closed) fuses are ignition protected, ATO (open) fuses are not.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Light Show!

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Kevin,

I have a 2003 Premier Pontoon. It has a marine electrical switch panel that includes a stereo off and on.

When any of the lights are on, a red light is on for that particular switch.

The issue is sometimes when I turn one on, all the lights on the panel start randomly flashing, then after a few minutes it stops and only the one I turned on stays on.

Thanks for your help in solving this boat wiring mystery.

David

Searching for the answer

Hi David.

It sounds like the lights on the switches in your panel share a common ground with stereo.

Make sure all connects are tight and corrosion free. If the problem continues, I would run a new ground wire from the switch panel to your battery negative.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Purple Popping

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Hi Kevin,

I just rebuilt the motor in on my old Suncruiser pontoon and need your help with some of the boat wiring.

Coming out of the ignition is a purple wire. Well, if I leave it hooked to the ignition, it gets real hot and keeps popping fuses. It seems to go to the positive side of the coil.Ignition Switch

Any ideas?

Carl

Hi Carl,

Disconnect the wire from the coil, if it still pops the fuse, there is a short in the wire between the ignition and the coil. If it stops, replace the coil.

Keep in mind that the purple ignition wire also provides power to your instrumentation.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Polarity Problem?

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Hi Kevin,

I would appreciate some boat wiring assistance please.

I am in the process of replacing my old Eagle 642c sounder/gps with a Lowrance HDS5 sounder GPS, and have everything sorted except for being able to power up the sounder.Lowrance HDS-5X I thought that I would be able to splice the power and earth wires into the existing power and earth wires, however it doesn’t seem to be working.

I don’t really want to run wires all the way down to the back of the boat to where the battery is, so do you have any advice? Could it be that my splicing isn’t very good or are there different standards in power wires and the existing power wires aren’t at the required standard?

Regards,

Tom

Hi Tom,

If you really don’t want to run new boat wiring to a known, clean source of power, your best bet is to test your existing boat wiring with a meter (not a light). The meter is polarity sensitive and the light is not.

It is very possible that you have the correct wires, but the polarity is reversed.

I always try to use weather proof connections on boats. Packard and Deustch make some great modular versions, but a good old heat-shrinkable butt connector will always do the job as well.

Good luck,

Kevin

Crazy!

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Hello Kevin,

I have a 2000 Bennington 2050 LX with a Mercury 50hp 4-stroke Bigfoot engine.

Yesterday the marine electrical system went kind of crazy. The motor kept running but the gauges all started to bouncing the indicator needles around then the control panel went dead.

The battery is fine (tested) and there is power to all the accessories but the ignition switch seems dead….the motor will not turn over and the tilt will not work either. I checked the two main fuses at the battery and they seemed fine.Bennington Pontoon Boats

What would make those gauges go crazy then everything goes dead? Luckily I did not turn the engine off and we made it back to shore.

Thank you,

Rob

Hi Rob,

You have a blown fuse on the engine. It will be near the starter solenoid. Remove the engine hood and follow your positive battery cable to the connection point. The in-line fuse will be within 6″ of this connection point.

Something non-repeatable such as a voltage spike may have caused the fuse to blow. Make sure your battery connections are good and that you do not rotate a battery switch to off while the engine is running. If the fuse blows again, trace the power lead from the fuse up to the helm and out to components.

You should be able to find the problem in your boat wiring by the process of elimination.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Kevin,

I just wanted to let you know you were correct. It was the fuse after all.

When I first looked it seemed good, but I finally replaced it just on a chance and it worked just fine. The bad fuse had a hairline fracture in it and when I held it up to the sun – sure enough I could see it.

Thank you very much for your good boat wiring advice!!!

Rob

Pump switch replacement

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Hello Kevin,

I appreciate any boat wiring help you can give me!

I have an older I/O pontoon (1977) with a lighted switch that turns on and off the livewell pump. The switch broke, and I need to replace it.

Pulling the switch out of the panel, I was surprised to find that all three wires connected to the switch are black, and the boat wiring to which they connect doesn’t help me to figure which wire is which and where to connect them to the new switch. I’m not an electrician, but I know enough that just connecting wires to the new switch by guessing could cause a good bit of additional trouble.

Here is a picture of the current broken switch. The switch is a Carling. I noticed the 1, 2, and 3 at the bottom of the switch where the wires are inserted. How do I know which is Earth, which is Load, and which is Supply?

Thanks!

Dane

Hi Dave,

The easiest way to sort out your boat wiring is which is with a voltmeter / ohm meter.

On a DC volt setting, connect your negative meter lead to a known ground. Probe each of the three wires to determine which is constant power (probably the center one).

On an OHM setting, keep you negative meter lead on ground an probe the other two wires. One will have nearly a 0 ohm reading (the switch light ground) and one will not (the blower). My guess is that the blower wire will be on the opposite the side that the toggle is switched to turn the blower on. If the switch clicks to the right to turn the blower on, the blower tab is probably the left.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Hot Toon!

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Kevin,

I have a pontoon boat that I use for fishing. The boat wiring includes a trolling motor, electric start motor, fish finder – all powered by one battery.

My throttle cables and bounding strips burned up. I replaced all the cables, strips, everything – and within a half an hour, they got hot and burned up again!

Can you tell me what or where to look? The boat wiring is pretty simple and connections all look fine – seems to be hunting ground through the wrong conductors. Ouch

Thanks for any suggestions,

Tony

Hi Tony,

I would start by tracing power feeds that don’t have circuit protection.

In marine electrical, the usual suspects are positive battery cables with shorts to ground and negative battery connections that are accidentally connected to the positive battery terminal.

Look to see if the shift cable has chafed a hole in the is positive battery cable.

Let me know what you find,

Kevin

Kevin,

We think it was the battery, which we replaced and everything is working fine.

Think it may have shorted out or wouldn’t except a charge I don’t know but seems to have solved the problem.

Thanks for getting back to us.

Tony

Maybe it’s too loud

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Kevin,

I just upgraded my pontoon boat with a new stereo 50 watt x 4 connected and matching speakers.

When the volume gets to 22 or higher the stereo kicks on and off. When below that it plays fine.

What is wrong?Turn it down?

Thanks, Mike

Hi Mike,

The power feed/ground wire is too small.

As you increase the volume, the current increases. As the current increase, there is more voltage drop in the wire. When the voltage gets too low, the stereo shuts off.

If the stereo is connected into your existing boat wiring, either increase the main power feed/ground for the fuse panel or run a separate new wire for the stereo.

This will solve you problem,

Kevin

Toon Tunes

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Hello,

I have a 2004 Manitou Legacy.

I recently attached my Kenwood (KME-440U) receiver faceplate to my stereo for the season and I was not getting power to the deck.

  • I have power from battery wire (yellow) as well as a working ground (Black).
  • I hooked the Kenwood unit directly to a battery and it works, so I know the deck itself is OK.
  • The unit/stereo system worked just fine the last day I used it last year.
  • The fuse in the back of the Kenwood unit was OK as well.
  • I checked all of the boat wiring from the stereo unit, Ignition (RED), Battery (Yellow), Ground (Black), ALL are OK.

CD
The “Stereo” switch located with the rest of the Accessory (ACC) switches is not fully lit when turned on. The red light is very dim. When the switch is turned to “ON” the Kenwood unit does not turn on..

  • Is there an additional fuse that corresponds the ACC switches themselves?
  • Are the wires coming directly from the back of the “Stereo” switch loose, faulty?
  • Can I follow the Ignition (RED) wire coming from the Kenwood unit directly to the back of the “Stereo” switch?

Thanks so much for all your help,

Chris

Hi Chris,

There will be a separate fuse/breaker that is connected to the Stereo switch. It is either blown or the wire has come loose. As soon as this is replaced, the red light will illuminate correctly and the stereo will have the power it needs to turn on.

Good luck,

Kevin

Mystery Part ID

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Kevin,

So my pontoon boat won’t start, a Sun Tracker Bass Buggy. Engine temp buzzer

I’m starting to tear into the boat wiring and trace it around and check the voltage, though I’ve run into something I’ve not seen before, though this is my first time with a boat.

I’ve attached a picture and I was hoping you could tell me what it is, the metal disc of sorts. Thank you so much!

Tim

Hi Tim,

It is an overheat warning buzzer.

12 volt power is supplied via the purple wire. When the engine gets hot, the tan wire goes to ground and the alarm sounds.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Ear Shift

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Kevin,

I have an 2008 pontoon boat and I have recently replaced the radio and speakers.

With the engine off or running it works great. But, as soon as I put the motor in gear it the radio cuts out and you can just barely hear music mixed with a lot of popping noises. When I shift back to neutral the radio works fine.

Any suggestions as to how I should troubleshoot the boat wiring?Alpine Radio

Justin

Hi Justin,

What happens when you shift the engine while it is not running? If the radio still cuts out, I would look at the boat wiring for the speaker that is routed near the shifter.

If not:

Check the power supply to the radio. Connect a DC meter to the radio power supply, shift the engine into gear, and watch the voltage. If it drops, check your connections.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Mystery Fuse?

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Hello Kevin

I can’t seem to solve an electrical issue with my 2003 Smokercraft Pontoon boat wiring. The motor is a 2004 90hp Mercury 2-stroke.

I recently installed a new radio/CD player under the dash which I wired to power on with the ignition in the accessory position. That worked fine. fuse

After cycling the ignition switch between ‘off’ and ‘accessory’ several times the gauge panel and ignition switch lost power. I checked various connections with a voltmeter. There is no electricity making it to the switch.

Am I not seeing a fuse somewhere?

The battery and terminal connections seem okay and I have power to the panel that controls the livewell pump, horn, etc.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Hi Mike,

There is a fuse under the engine hood that supplies power to your ignition switch. It should be near the battery cable connection on the starter solenoid.

Thanks for writing,

Kevin

DC Outlet Testing

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Hi Kevin:

I’m stuck troubleshooting the DC outlets on a recently acquired pontoon boat, and I’m hoping you can help. Here’s what’s going on:

  1. With one exception, none of the appliances I’ve tried (GPS, USB/DC adapter, AC converter from Radio Shack, etc.) work; that is, they behave as if they are not plugged in. The one exception is the USB adapter; it works very intermittently, I’d say once in 50 attempts.
  2. Two DC outlets are wired into the same switch on the panel. Neither one functions.
  3. Using a voltmeter, I tested the voltage of both outlets, and they both match the voltage on the battery meter, so the circuit seems okay.
  4. I tried installing new outlets; no effect.
  5. I’ve tested two of the appliances in my car to test the appliances themselves are working, and they are.

With very little boat wiring experience, I’m now stuck as to what could be the problem, or what else I might test. Any thoughts?

Many thanks,

Tim

Hi Tim,

The best way to find your boat wiring problem is to have your voltmeter connected to the receptacle and then plug in a device.

If the voltage starts normal and then drops when you plug in your device, there is a bad connection/corroded wire in the system. Search connections until you eliminate the drop. The voltage drop across the bad connection (high resistance point) increases with current. Since the meter draws very little, the drop is not noticed on the meter. AS soon as you increase the draw, the drop increases, and your device will not turn on.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Which wire?

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Dear Kevin,

I am installing an hourmeter on my 26′ Sunchaser with a 200 HP Yamaha engine.

The positive side of the meter is supposed to be wired into the ignition circuit that has 4 wires, i.e. red, blue, green and yellow. As I only want the meter to function when the engine is turned on, how should I connect the boat wiring? Which wire do I attach to? I think it is the yellow one.Hourmeter

Thank you,

Arthur

Hi Arthur,

The easiest way to answer your question is either with a dc meter or test light. Test each wire individually to determine which one is the switched power when the key is turned on.

My best guess would be yellow, but use a meter to be sure.

Kevin