Pontoon battery wiring

[Boatmanswife]

Somedays I think I excell at dumb. As some of you know, I have a late 1970's Starcraft Starfish Pontoon. I have been having some electrical issues, the most recent with the gas gauge. I've received some excellent answers here to that question, thank you.
Here is the thing, when I hook the battery up, I have three red wires, that go to the positive terminal and two black wires to the ground post, quite straightforward. But...there is another fairly heavy gauge wire that is black, I assume would be a ground, except at the connection point it has a red "band" around the wire, that confuses me, is it positive or negative? I think hooking it up wrong may be blowing fuses leading to some of my other wiring problems like the gas gauge issue. I have experimented with trying it on both posts, which of course has lead to problems. Does anyone know if that wire is positive or negative?

 

[EGlideRider]

Re: Pontoon battery wiring

That is probably the motor negative. If one of the red wires is of the same approximate guage then that adds to the presumption. A sure way to check it is to use an ohmmeter and test the resistance from the black wire in question to the motor frame. The reistance should be very near zero ohms.

If it is a positive wire, and I'm almost certain it is not, then connecting it to the negative will hurt nothing.

Good luck and report back your findings.

 

[Boatmanswife]

Re: Pontoon battery wiring

Thank you EGlideRider, I will let you know what I find out as soon as I get back to the lake and my boat.

 

[ac0j]

Re: Pontoon battery wiring

I would expect a pontoon, if wires are original, would have the same amount of power wires as grounds.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Pontoon battery wiring

Pontoon wiring is not rocket science. Follow the wire and see where it goes. A black wire with a red band is being signified by someone that it MAY NOT be a ground wire. However, the engine needs ONE large gauge cable (usually red) for the starter. It also needs the same size cable (usually black) for the engine ground. That wire will be bolted to the engine block. The other smaller wires follow the same logic but are for accessories.