TimmyT, Radio, etc INSTALL

Hey guys,

well with my boat here at home and in my garage, I thought I'd start in on some things I have waited for "the fall" to do.

1. Got Timmy T installed in the hose just after the raw water filter.


2. got a new head unit installed in the glove box, and 4 new speakers installed. Here is one of the speakers:


3. Now here is where I need to do some work. As you can see from the next two photos, my battery(at the battery is reading a bit over 13v. My Dash board Voltmeter is reading just over 8v. ?????? Is this a "Run a new, heavier ground wire issue?"
   

Dan,
Trace that red wire back and see where it goes. The picture isn't very clear as to what the "brass fitting" the red is connected to. It looks more like the temp sender than a ground.

Regarding the volt meter, clean all your connections. Even with under sized wire, you should not be seeing a 5.2 voltage drop. Measure the volts directly at the back of the gauge. Yes, do upsize both the dash + feed and the ground feed.

Hey Pete

Ok, just pulled the screws for the dash and lifted it away. Man, what a rats nest!! Anyway, I cleaned the contacts on the dash voltmeter, charged my battery full. and just retested. The battery fully charged is 13.1v.....the dash voltmeter now reads 10.1volts so still reading 3v lower.

I also found the "ground" at the engine, now where the HECK is the other end behind the dash???

Pics
Engine Ground:


Where is ground behind dash??

If you just want to test out the lack of ground theory, take a wire and run it from either a clean engine grounding spot or directly to the negative battery terminal, and clip it into any place you see a gauge ground or group of grounds under the dash. See if that bumps the voltmeter at the dash up at all. I keep a long 12 gauge wire with alligator clips at both ends for testing stuff like this.

Ok, I made up a 5 foot jumper (out of 14 gauge stranded) it's the only thing I had on hand at the moment. I jumpered straight from the Neg. of the battery, to the black/ground on the dash mounted voltmeter. Battery was reading 13V, and the jumper did help a bit..my dash voltmeter was reading 11.5V

Any thoughts??

I will give that a try tomorrow!! Thanks

What voltage do you have at the lead on the ignition breaker? I assume 10.5 like the rest of the dash.

With nothing running, no electrical draw beyond maybe some gauge lights, having 13 volts at the battery and 10.5 at the dash is likely a really corroded connection on your positive feed, maybe even a break in the wire. Do the same thing I suggested on the ground on the positive side, run the jumper wire to the dash and see if that corrects your dash voltage. If so you know to replace your dash feed, which you should anyway with a larger feed.

I'm assuming you'll have the same 10.5 at the ignition breaker, but with electrical stuff it's worth testing and not assuming. So use your multimeter to test the voltage at the breaker feed wire to make sure it's not different from the rest of the dash.

Then run a positive jumper from the battery or the main 60 amp breaker on the back of the engine to the ignition breaker. Since that breaker feeds all dash power it should correct your voltage everywhere in the dash.

One caution - you want that jumper to go to the feed side of the ignition breaker - that way the breaker is protecting the dash from too much current. Don't feed the dash side of the breaker with the jumper as you'll be sending power un-fused to the dash.

Dan, makes me nervous to answer without knowing quite what you are seeing. Maybe someone else will chime in, or could you post a picture of what you are describing.

By the way, what is your boat?

You can measure the voltage at the 50 amp breaker (either side - no such thing as the ground side on these breakers). It should be very close to battery voltage. After that it is routed through the harness up to the ignition breaker on the dash. Voltage should be the same at the 50 amp breaker and the ignition breaker. If not then you have to much loss through the harness.   This is common with these boats. I added a 10 gauge wire in parallel with the harness. I connected one end to the 50 amp breaker output (so it is still protected) and ran it up through the hull to the dash and to the input of the ignition breaker. You could also try disconnecting and cleaning the black rubber connectors, both engine and dash. Use rubbing alcohol or contact cleaner and a small brush or something that you can clean out the sockets with. Sometimes just cycling the connector a few times will clean it up also.

Also, when making voltage measurements attach the negative lead to the engine or battery ground/negative and don't move it between measurements. The reading will be different if the ground has a problem.

Though the dash diagram below is for my 89 (second speedo removed), i'm guessing it will be close enough to a 93.

I think your best bet is to use test voltage from the feed side of the 50a breaker to the main ground on the engine block. The thread posted above about wiring the dash shows the location on the block (mine is right by the first spark plug). If you have the correct volts there, then start moving your positive side probe up the chain until you find the drop (so load side of breaker next, followed by feed side of ignition breaker, load side of ig breaker, etc...) If you have the same voltage by the time you get to the ignition switch, then leave your pos lead there, and move your neg lead up along the chain. This will help identify any bad connections all the way into the dash.




Also, maybe i missed it...but as long as the 50a breaker is functioning correctly, you will have a constant +12v at the feed side of the ig breaker. once that is switched on, that provides 12v to your accessories (bilge pump, blower, lights, horn, ig switch). When the ig switch is active, that supplies voltage to the dash. And did you follow that red wire that Pete thought was attached to the temp sensor? does that in fact go to the temp gauge? If it does, curious what was wrong with the original wire that goes through the harness to supply that feed to the gauge.

I know it seems tedious, but since nothing has provided great results, it's best to start at the beginning to start ruling out bad wires/connections. Not to say that the gauge itself still isn't bad though as mentioned above.

just for testing purposes...disconnect the wires on your blower breaker (or whichever is next to the ig breaker) and move the ig breaker wires to that one and retest.

If you didn't already, disconnect the spade connector at the output and measure it. Could be the crimp connection. If it is the breaker you can try taking it off and cleaning it. Spray some WD40 or contact cleaner into it and cycle it a bunch of times. You can also disconnect both spade connectors and measure the resistance across the breaker.

Great day for some more boat work!   Got both a new 10 gauge Ground wire and Hot wire pulled from the engine compartment to behind the dash. Also, went and found this grounding block to connect all my dash ground wires too. Should make things much nicer.

Grounded to engine:


At the Dash:


Also ordered a new 20amp Ignition breaker from Nautique Parts, and bought a new Marine Cranking battery. The old battery would lose charge a bit overnight, and I figured it was time for a new one.

Dan,
Keep up the good work but I do have some suggestions. Avoid using wiring devices designed for the house like the ground block. It plus you using non marine rated wire, there's a potential for corrosion at that aluminum ground block. FYI, marine wire is tinned to prevent corrosion. I also recommend using high quality crimp on connections with heat shrink adhesive lined insulation. These are small items but they do add up to something you won't have a problem with later.