Battery hook up help

jeff6898

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
May 23, 2008
Messages
106
1979 Evinrude 85hp 85999R

Disconnected battery and gotten a new one. Dumb self didn't pay attention to the cables. Put new battery in now my areator doesn't work, the tac gas gauge and the lighting on those 2 guages don't work. All 3 were working perfect until I changed batteries. Could I have gotten some of the cables mixed up putting back on the battery? ALso I have a wire that I touched to the negative side of the battery and it started sparking. I guess this means it goes the the positive? When I figure this out I will bundle them together this time. Everything else works great. THe nav lights, starts right up, trim, and trolling motor.
 

gbb

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 11, 2008
Messages
159
Re: Battery hook up help

Check to see if you blew any fuses.
 

d.boat

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Sep 19, 2008
Messages
520
Re: Battery hook up help

How many wires do you have that need to be connected to your battery?

What exactly do the wires look like (size, color, condition)?

FOR EXAMPLE: my boat has just three pairs of wires that connect to the battery. One set is very large wire - this is the set that goes back to the engine for charging, starting, etc. This is fairly typical in that there will be one very large set of wires but there may be more or less smaller pairs of wire.

The other two sets are more normal size wire, one set is heavier than the other though.

The heavier set is the positive and negative that runs from the + and - battery terminals up to the dashboard and runs all the gauges and other items that are wired in up there. The + wire runs to a terminal strip and the - wire to the grounding strip, both up under the dash. All the electrical things up there get their power through those strips. The power terminal strip is a bracket with several screw connectors and has a fuse for each item wired into it. The ground strip is just a bracket with several screw connectors.

The third pair of wires at the battery are dedicated to the bilge pump.

You'll need to do two things: first, figure out which wires go to positive, which to negative.

Second - you'll need to fix whatever you damaged by (possibly) connecting them wrong. You could have blown fuses, rectifier, etc.

My wires are bundled together so they more or less have to be connected together. They are also color coded red wire for + and black wire for -, so it would be pretty obvious even if they were laying loose.

Good luck.
 

ezeke

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Sep 19, 2003
Messages
12,532
Re: Battery hook up help

Follow the battery cable; the negative goes to ground, bolted directly to the engine block. The positive battery cable goes to the starter solenoid. See the diagram below.
 

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R.Johnson

Rear Admiral
Joined
Sep 24, 2003
Messages
4,446
Re: Battery hook up help

Big post on the battery is positive, little is negative.
 
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