Hello all, new to this forum and have a few electric problems with my boat. Ive had a few smaller, simpler boats in the past, but this is my first bigger boat and it has many features I am unfamiliar with, but am learning. Ive been researching past posts on many different subjects and the search feature is a fountain of usefull advice, but please indulge a few tech questions that are somewhat covered partly in past posts, but I am still reading most previous posts as well.Recently acquired a 1973 Sea Ray 220 I-O that I cant seem to get the engine to turn over and start. 188 HP v-8 engine is clean with what appears to be virgin unhacked wiring in the engine compartment. Unfortunately, the under dash wiring is a terrible mess of splices and crimp-on terminals that have to be seen to be believed. What terminals are visiable at the fuse blocks are a mess of jumpers and corrosion, and I plan to replace the fuse blocks with new clean connections. It is easy to advise that I should carefully trace everything before removing, but I have reason to believe that the current wiring arrangement COULD be incorrect.Right now, the boat has two good fully charged batteries with a selector switch under one rear seat in the battery area and what looks to be a brand new 3 terminal, 3 position ignition switch mounted in the dash. Near this brand new switch is a loose red wire with white stripe and this has a eye similar to the three wires attatched to the starter switch and kinda looks like it should be attatched near, due to the similar slack of the other wires, but there isnt an unused terminal on the starter switch, so Im debating whether this new 3 terminal ignition switch is the proper one for this model, or should there be a 4 terminal ? Maybe this red w/white stripe wire should piggyback on one of the terminals ? On one of the switche's contacts is an obviously new RED wire that runs to the rear and connects to the left post of the two small posts on the solenoid between the large battery posts. Playing with a meter, the red wire with white stripe always has power regardless of the key's position, but the other three wires do not have any power. I wish I had the schematic for the key switch so I would know which post is what, and Im baffled by what the new red wire to the solenoid is there for.When I turn the ignition switch to start cranking the engine, nothing happens. Regardless of the position of the ignition switch. Anyone know what the function of the two small posts on the solenoid are for ? Knowing this may help me figure out the mess and what I need to repair to get this boat engine fired up. I guess I was wondering exactly what I need as a minimum to just start the engine and hear it run before I begin reworking the underdash wiring fiasco. The engine looks to be Ford with a separate solenoid and as I remember from my youth, it was possible to "jump" the solenoid but as this is a boat, I defer to the more experienced members of this forum for advice before I burn anything up. There are six or seven various ground wires attatched to one of the solenoid mounting bolts and all Ive tried so far is to remove all of these and sand the end terminals bare and remounted to confirm proper grounding.If I can provide any other data to assist, please advise as I am anxious to verify that this electrical nightmare actually will run. The boat itself is in decent shape, solid floors, nice features, but the hacked wiring has me intimidated due to the volume of mish-mash.Thanks !
Was able to spend a few hours under the dash today and cleaned up quite a bit of the mess by charting everything and I carefully removed the fuse block and cleaned up all the terminals, most of which were badly corroded. There were also a few duplicate curcuits that were confusing, but previous bad connections were at fault for these and proper cleanup got these removed and corrected. While doing this, I labelled everything for future reference, took copious notes, and was also able to eliminate a few obviously dead "add-on" problems that went to old stereo area, missing VHF radio,etc, and looking over the newly cleaned up region, I must confess that it isnt as bad as I was crying about last night. I can now see the original intent and although there are still many crimp-on terminals in sight, their purpose and direction are now visable, thus future cleanup with properly soldered connections may not be as difficult as I first suspected. I still want to start the thing up and hear her run, but I suspect the solenoid wire that has been added and connected to the ignition switch is the cause of the no start blues. What allows the engine to start ? I am thinking that an exciter wire from the ignition key switch activates the solenoid and lets power go to the starter, but what exactly causes the engine to shut off ? I have searched for solenoid wiring schematics before wasting forum members time, but cant seem to get the solenoid situation firmly grasped.Any help/comments would be greatly appreciated
Hey Loader, welcome to iboats.See you are a couple hours up the road from me.Let's get this over to the I/O forum to see if we can get you some answers.
Was able to spend a few hours under the dash today and cleaned up quite a bit of the mess by charting everything and I carefully removed the fuse block and cleaned up all the terminals, most of which were badly corroded. There were also a few duplicate curcuits that were confusing, but previous bad connections were at fault for these and proper cleanup got these removed and corrected. While doing this, I labelled everything for future reference, took copious notes, and was also able to eliminate a few obviously dead "add-on" problems that went to old stereo area, missing VHF radio,etc, and looking over the newly cleaned up region, I must confess that it isnt as bad as I was crying about last night. I can now see the original intent and although there are still many crimp-on terminals in sight, their purpose and direction are now visable, thus future cleanup with properly soldered connections may not be as difficult as I first suspected. I still want to start the thing up and hear her run, but I suspect the solenoid wire that has been added and connected to the ignition switch is the cause of the no start blues. What allows the engine to start ? I am thinking that an exciter wire from the ignition key switch activates the solenoid and lets power go to the starter, but what exactly causes the engine to shut off ? I have searched for solenoid wiring schematics before wasting forum members time, but cant seem to get the solenoid situation firmly grasped.Any help/comments would be greatly appreciated
Ford solenoid. I had the same problem with mine not starting. There are 2 small terminals on the solenoid. 1 large. The large terminal is for battery cable from battery or selector battery switch. The fist small terminal is from the start post on your ignition switch, which activates the starter solenoid when you turn the key to START. When you do this it also activates the other small terminal on the solenoid with full 12volts to your coil on the + side. The minus side of the coil will also have 12 volts from you ignition on, but you need that wire from the start solenoid to send 12volts to the + side of the coil for it to give you spark to the distributer.
I know because I had the same problem. Actually the motor would turn over, but no spark. I found the wire from the + side of the coil loose at the starter solenoid. I tightened it up and wa la it fired right up.
Could be too you are not getting the 12 volts from the ignition switch, usually a blue or puple wire or ? sending power to the starter solenoid.
Here is a basic solenoid operation discription. 1 when you turn on the key to."on" position power goes to all accessories, ignition "run" etc. 2 When you turn the key over to "start" position it activates another wire sending 12 volts directly to one of the solenoids small terminals.
The large terminal with the battery cable is always hot.
so when the start circuit is energized by the ignition switch turned to "start" it pull the solenoid shut sending 12 direct battery power to the starter turning over the motor. at the same time while cranking it sends a clean solid 12 volts to your coil causing spark and thus ignition, When you release the ignition it automaticly return to the " on" or run possition.
You can check this if your motor cranks over, by running a wire from the positive post of the battery to the + side of the coil. If your ignition switch is sending 12v run voltage the motor should start up. You will have to pull the temporary jumper off to shut down the motor because you are by passing the ignition switch.
Could be a simple as a stuck solenoid. If it doesn't close it won't crank or send power to your coil.
73 SRV 220 no start blues
Linear Mode
