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

Sanity Clause

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Kevin,

I’ve recently placed an order on your partner boat wiring site, but I have the butterfly’s about my marine electrical design.

Can you please give me your opinion (and a sanity check) on this boat wiring diagram?

Thank you very much!

Steve

Hi Steve,

Nice schematic!

The only change that I would make would be to run the top battery charger output to battery #2 either at the battery switch or directly to the battery. This will allow the house battery to charge in any battery switch position. If you want to also charge your engine start battery, simply switch the battery switch into either the ON position or the combine.

If your pontoon boat has a bimini top and you are planning on attaching your all-round white light to the top of the frame, you many want to consider switching to this navigation light kit, which has a light base that easily mounts to the frame.

Thank you for your order,

Kevin

Switch Advice

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Kevin,

After considerable testing, it appears that my boat’s ignition switch is bad.

I have no boat wiring schematics and have found several ignition switches to choose from online.

Last year I bought several hundred dollars worth of really great stuff from your partner boat wiring site, EzAcDc. So, while trying to figure out which ignition switch to buy, I figured I might as well ask my favorite “electrical guy”.

Or, if EzAcDc sells switches, that works for me too.

Hoping to hear from you soon.

Thanks Much!

Donatella

Hi,

Something like this will work great for you.

All of the terminals will be labeled the same. It should only take a few minutes to replace the switch.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

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

Navigation Light Wiring

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Hi Kevin,

I have a old pontoon with no navigation lights.

I put a red and green light up the front and a white light up on the pontoon bimini top frame.Attwood is the world leader in navigation lights

When I hook them up directly to a 12 volt battery they work great. I have an on/off switch, so I put the positive on one side and the negative on the other side of the switch it sparks and carries on, can you tell me what I need to do?

Thank you,

John

Hi John,

Here is the proper way to wire your simple navigation light circuit.

  • Within 7″ of your battery, install an in-line fuse holder with a 5 amp fuse.
  • From fuse, run a wire to one post on the switch.
  • From second post on switch, connect 2 wire leads. One will connect to one of of the wires on your red/green light and one will connect to one of the wires on your white light.
  • From second wire on red/green light and white light, connect wires to negative terminal on the battery.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Dim Bulb

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Kevin,

If I have a 12 volt, 3 watt bulb in my boat wiring, does it matter if I use a different volt and watt as long as the connectors still match up?

Marvin

Hi Marvin,

In boat wiring (or any electrical) if you put a bulb in the a socket and the voltage rating in lower than your system rating, it will light up bright and burn out quick. If you use a bulb with a higher voltage rating, it will just light up dimmer.

The higher the wattage, the brighter the bulb will light regardless of the voltage rating.

Hopefully this sheds some light on this subject,

Kevin

Twin 24v Bank Bus

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Hello Kevin,

I hope you can help verify something for me.

I am trying to help a friend with his pontoon boat wiring.

He has:

  • 2 x 24v battery banks of 2 x 12v batteries each bank wired in series
  • 1 manual battery switch; 1, 2 both, or off positions
  • Battery switch is wired correctly with positive leads from each bank

Can you please confirm that if I had a common ground block, all I need to do is wire the negative from each 24v battery bank to the block and then connect the trolling motor negative to the block?

Thank you.Ground bus

Gene

Hi Gene,

You are correct.

The battery selector switch only connects to the positive leads.

The negatives for both battery banks will connect together at a common ground block. Keep in mind that not all four battery negatives connect to the ground block, only the two that are the actual 0v position for your 24v volt systems.

Kevin

Kevin,

Thanks man. I appreciate your help. I understand the series ground connection from each bank.

Take care,

Gene

Three on a switch

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Kevin

On my fishing pontoon boat there is a single outboard and  three batteries.

Here’s my boat wiring question:EzAcDc offers complete battery switch systems for your boat wiring project

What is the easiest way to charge all three boat batteries from the outboard’s alternator? Also how do I switch the batteries, most battery switches are only for two?

Mike

Hi Mike,

If two of your batteries are connected in series to create a 24 volt system, there is no great way to charge them from your engine alternator.

Depending on what you want in the end, some boat wiring setups use a two battery switch combined with a single ON/OFF battery switch and other applications simply parallel batteries 2 and 3 together and use a regular 2 battery switch. Battery 2 is basically the combination of your battery #2 and battery #3.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

What wire where?

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Hi Kevin.

I’m restoring my pontoon boat wiring with my daughter.

I’m hooking up the intrument panel and not sure what wire goes where. It is a 1969 Evinrude 55hp.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thank you,Boat wiring

Randy

Hi Randy,

Here are the standard boat wiring colors that should work for your project:

  • Red – power in
  • Purple – ignition power from key switch
  • Gray – tachometer
  • Pink – fuel quantity
  • Black – ground
  • Black/yellow – magneto ground
  • Yellow/red – start
  • Tan/white – trim position
  • Brown/white or purple/white – choke
  • Tan – water temperature
  • Blue – instrument lights

Hope this helps,

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

Light Switch Wiring

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Kevin,

I am attempting to replace the switch for the navigation lights on my pontoon boat wiring.

The lighted switch has six posts on the back, but I have no idea as to which wires go where, and the wires are hidden in the captain’s stand so I cannot see where they go.Attwood 14386-3 switch

Can you send any boat wiring diagrams that will help me with this?

Thank you,

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

The typical boat wiring for your navigation light switch is:

  • Power is supplied to the switch at both middle terminals
  • Bottom left, forward navigation light
  • Bottom right, stern light
  • Jumper wire from bottom right to top right.

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