Forgot to separate wires for battery hookup!

RegalOwner

Recruit
Joined
Oct 1, 2014
Messages
2
Yep, I did it. I didn't pay attention to which wires went to positive and negative terminals when I yanked a battery to recharbe it. It is a 1980 Glastron SSV176 with an Evinrude 140 (1977 model). I know the two heavy gauge black go to negative and the two heavy gauge red go to the positive, but that leaves me 3 wires. Two are gray and I thou th t went to neg and there was one whitish that I thought went to positive. In this setup I get tilt to work going up only. Tilt down makes no sound. And, the motor does not have a sparkat the plugs. I havent broken out my volt-ohm meter to confirm my quick wire tracing is correct, but it looked like the two gray went to one pot on the speedo gauge. Not sure of the other yet, but it seemed to connect up with another wire before going to another gauge?
I can use my meter to confirm this as soon as I can.
I am at a loss to find any diagrams to help me, or even guidelines. I have fresh fuel, and it gets to the carbs, and I have a well charged battery.
Note the boat ran last year and I am pretty sure I can figure it out in time but prefer not to fry anything in the process.
Any help or advice is appreciated.
 

UncleWillie

Captain
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
3,995
Trace the wires to where they actually go.

The Speedometer usually has No wiring other than the back-light lamp.
If the two Grey wires, one is POS and the other is NEG.

Once you get if figured out, Wrap colored tape around the Grey and White wires so you will know what is POS(red) and NEG(yel)

For many years, Black was used as Negative. The current standard is Yellow for DC Negative in boats.
It makes more sense if you think about it. Black is AC Hot in larger vessels.
Also if you add something that comes with two Black (or Grey) wires, confusion becomes imminent.
 
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RegalOwner

Recruit
Joined
Oct 1, 2014
Messages
2
Thanks for your replies, and the digital camera is a good one... IN HINDSIGHT! Good thing, it wasn't an issue of wiring at all. It turned out the battery didn't have enough of a charge to really crank it (long enough), but when the battery was fully charged it cranked up soundly. I just didn't want to crank it long because I was not confident that the wiring was in place properly (or I hadn't inadvertently dislodged a wire in the process).
The tilt issue was simply that the tilt relays were corroded. Compression is about 125 on all 4 cylinders and I believe this motor is now able to be sold. The deck and interior in the old 1980 Glastron SSV-176 was just too far gone to keep it alive.
Thanks for your input here on the forum!
 

NYBo

Admiral
Joined
Oct 23, 2008
Messages
7,107
Welcome to iboats!:welcome:

Glad you figured it out. So, NOW, snap those pix for future reference.
 

WrenchHead

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
120
As I remove wires from a battery I run a twist tie through the eyelets to keep all the pos and neg tied together in two groups. Also last week I purchased a new Interstate cranking battery. I took it home and put a 6 v charger on it. It took 5 hours to fully charge the battery. Then I had to add a small amount of distilled water. The Lorance now shows 12.3 v and when running it shows 14.3 volts.
 
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