Sea Era wireing

[jpausburn]

I bought a 1999 173 Sea Era. runs great family really likes it but none of the guages work. Well I wanted to put a GPS/fishfinder on it so I took off the panel to see how to wire the GPS to the switch and while I'm at it, find out why the gauges don't work. Well once I pulled the plexy off I don't know where to begine. I can't find an owner manual for this boat and I understand that they went out of business. I believe that I hook the GPS to the switch which should be hooked to the battery. Plus, it looks like the wires are all running to the right side of the boat, is there a area(tube) that runs the wire back for the transducer?
This is my first boat and I'm not a electrician. I hope that I didn't get in over my head. Any ideas

 

[Art Bernard]

Re: Sea Era wireing




The attached pic is general wiring diagram for gages, your actual color may vary depending on mfg of your boat. Here's a simple explanation of boat, not engine, wiring.
From your battery there should be a hot wire (red) and a ground wire (black) running to a fuseblock that is usually located in your console. You may also have a fuseblock and a sepperate ground bar. All of your stuff is wired to this fuse block. Lets say you are hooking up your bildge pump. A power, or hot wire (usualy brown for a bildge pump) will go from the bilge pump, to the fuseblock. A ground wire (black) will go from your bilge pump to the ground section of your fuseblock or in some cases a seperate ground block. Now, on the power wire an on/off switch will be wired between the pump and the fuseblock enabling you to turn the pump on and off. This describes a simple electrical circut. Other stuff on your boat is wired the same way such as your horn, radio, cigarete lighter and lights. All of these with the exception of the lights are usually a simple on/off switch. The nav lights will usually be a 2 position switch or it may have 2 switches wired sepperatly for the bow and the stern lights. It can be confusing looking at all the wiring that is stuffed in a console, but take your time and trace the wires to where they go. Pick a switch and trace it out both power side and ground side, this will help you understand the circut. I hope this helps you some and please post more questions if you need more specific answers.

Art

 

[Art Bernard]

Re: Sea Era wireing

with reguards to your question about wiring your gps and wire routs, there is usually on most boats a tube that runs beneth the deck near your fuseblock to the rear of the boat or where ever your battery is at. The wires can also be run through the side of the boat. Look for that fuseblock and find the main powerwires I was talking about in my previous post and they will lead you the route of the wires going aft to your battery. I'm going to assume the gps you want to use is a combo unit with gps and fish/depth finder. The main unit will mount near the drivers station wherever you want to put it. It will have a set of power wires, red is the hot wire, black is the ground. The unit will have it's own internal on/off switch so all you need to do is run the ground (black) wire to the fuseblock ground section or sepperate ground strip as the case may be. Than run the hot (red) wire to the positive connection on your fuse block. Allot of these units have a built in, in-line fuse on the hot wire or maybe an internal fuse in the main unit. Irreguardless I recomend running the hot wire to a spot on the fuseblock that has a fuse. Now that you have done this, your main unit will have power. Now I'm assuming you will have to mount a transducer to your transom. Follow the mfg instructions with reguards to location and how to mount it. As far as running the transducer wire, you can run it the route the other wires take from the rear of your boat forwards or you may find an alternate route to run it. Either way you want to make sure it's out of harms way and won't get steped on or damaged. Once you've run it, simply plug it into the recepticle on your main unit. If you're going to try to run it under the deck, you will probibly need to get whats known as a fish tape. This is basicaly a stiff wile on a roll that you can feed along the underdeck route, than connect a wire to and than pull it back feeding the wire thru the route. Most hardware stors carry these. Also when working with electricity, please disconnect your battery while working so as not to accidently cause a short or shock yourself.

Art

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Sea Era wireing

Gauges are not powered from the fuse panel. They are powered from the "A" (accessory) terminal on the ignition switch. If you want the GPS wired to ignitiion switch you can pick off power and either at the "I" terminal on any gauge or the ignition switch. Ground is ground and available also on any gauge or the fuse panel ground bus. Power to the ignition switch "B" (battery) terminal comes from the engine harness, via the engine, via the large battery cables.