1990 Dash Wiring

It's most likely overkill, we usually don't sit with the stereo on and always are able to plug in at the dock. There are a couple of times a year though where we might spend most of the day listening with a few hours of running. These times we won't have shore power to charge for 3 or 4 days. I just need to be sure on those days that I'm OK. Like everything else, I suspect the stereo will grow over time and make use of all the extra capacity I have right now.

The main switch is a little different, it turns 2 loads on but keeps them separate, the other switch uses on battery or the other or both., the VSR combines the main switch for charging.

I ran a 10ga duplex wire from the protected side of the 50 amp breaker to the ignition breaker on the dash for the hot. For the ground I went from the battery connection to the block to the beginning of the birdsnest where the grounds begin to split at the dash, tied to the exiting ground a few inches before the split. A bus would have been better there, but I'm just to lazy to do that much wiring.

For Memorial Day Weekend I added 2 more deepcycle batteries for the stereo with a switch that feeds a second master switch and a voltage sensitive relay. Right now I'm chasing a draw that is killing the start battery, I think it's the relay searching for the other batteries when I turn them off. Anyway the idea is to be able to separate all the batteries from eachother. My idea is to be able to charge with a 3 bank charger and hopefully be able to replace individual batteries as needed since one won't be able to take out another.   Once I get it figured out I'll try towork up a diagram.

I added another 10ga feed to my dash and I see 13.5 volts, but it drops to 12 with everything running, heater, bildge, stereo, Perfect Pass, blower and lights. Did you try it without the relay to see what kind of voltage you saw?   I know the stock wire is undersized, but I'm curious if your getting no voltage drop from the wire or the relay. My stereo is an iPod so I'm not sure it really has a draw once it's charged, the amps have their own battery and wiring so only draw they have from the dash is a turn on wire that also charges the iPod.

I have a '92 Sport and have had a few wierd glitches in my instruments. The alternator is putting out good voltage but my voltmeter only indicates 10 or so volts. Further, if I turn my navigation lights on (or any other high-load item), my voltmeter goes down further and my other engine guages (ie water temp and oil pressure) go UP. I cant tell you how many times over the last 10 years I have been motoring around our lake, as a family, at night time (with the lights on) and looked down to see my temp gauge reading something like 200+ ! DOH! Then I shut the lights off and it's all back to normal (170-180).

Okay, this forum is full of really smart people...any ideas?

BTW, what water temperature does everyone think is ideal running temp on your engines? (I've got the Pro Boss ProTec 5.8L). I know alot depends on thermostat, water temp, etc. but I've worked w/ Vince at DIM over the years and my boat just seems to be "stuck" on 180 even tho my thermostat is 160. Granted, the lake we boat on is rather shallow and quite warm (more like bath water) but any thoughts here too?

Minaqua, thanks for the diagrams and all the work that went into them---very helpful!   

^^Running a new ground could help things a lot.
I posted a thread with pictures about it here.

A new hot supply would be taking that a step further. When I added my ground, I left the original in place too.

Are any of your other gauges acting funny?

BuffaloBFN wrote: My horn has an orange hot.

Load or supply side? My boat and drawing have orange on the load side and red supply.

Awesome! Good work.

Nice work, much appreciated. Welcome! We should be able to print those off and use in our boat at the size they are at. Before posting any other picture you have to shrink it. I like using Microsoft Photo Editor to get them down to about 600X400 (just what I use, some may use other things/sizes)

In an effort to be a contributor to the site, I wanted to share my most recent project with the group in case any of you would find it useful or interesting. If anyone would like larger bmp's of my wiring diagrams, please let me know.

This year we bought a 1990 Sport Nautique and on the first voyage learned it has quite an annoying chirp and less than 10v from the common "low-voltage/bad ground/corroded connections at the dash" condition that I've been reading about. After spending an hour under the dash with a multi-meter tracing wires I put together a wiring diagram based off some of the other diagrams on this site.

Right away I noticed a few things that didn't seem correct, so I also made a diagram of what I believe the wiring was from the factory. I have not verified EVERY wire but believe this my diagram to be pretty accurate. I would invite feedback on this from other members - specifically, what is the orange wire from my one accessory switch going to? It doesn't appear to power anything.

And then lastly, I made a diagram of the changes I made to the boat. This includes running two 8ga wires to the dash, powering the ignition switch using a relay, adding two power points (which is really how this whole thing started) and providing new grounds to some equipment. I did not go through and clean the connections or solder anything. I am getting a solid 13.5 volts on the gauge while running and turning on accessories like the blower, heater, or stereo don't even make the needle move.

Again, please provide input on the diagrams - I had to move some gauges and switches around to make it look like my 1990 dash so there may be some adjusting I need to do for wiring. If we can get the "factory" diagram to a point where the site admin's are comfortable, I would be happy to provide the larger sized file to be posted in the reference section. Thanks!