New Boater, New Old Boat!

emarkd

Cadet
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
20
Hello all,

I just bought my first boat! Its a 1984 Bayliner Capri Bowrider that's about 18.5 ft in length with the Volvo AQ125A stern drive setup in it. The motor, steering, trim, everything works great. The interior is decent. Somebody put new vinyl in it not too long ago and it's cleaned up nicely. The deck has a few soft spots and the carpet is stained up, but it's not bad and I'm willing to do the work to repair the deck.

My question today is about the instrument panel. This one is badly faded so I can't read what the switches are supposed to do, and right now they don't do anything. There are two on-off switches and one two-pole switch that I assume is off in the center position. The bilge pump is wired directly to the battery. The lights don't work. There's an engine room exhaust fan but it also doesn't currently work. I found the fuse panel under the "dash" but all the fuses test fine. I'm pretty handy with electrical stuff so I can fix it but I'd like to know what the switches were supposed to do originally before I just dive in and rewire the boat.

If somebody could provide me with a picture of the instrument panel or at least descriptions of what each switch originally did, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
-Mark
 

gcboat

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
May 29, 2007
Messages
1,822
Re: New Boater, New Old Boat!

Hey Mark,

I'm going to post a color code of marine wiring here for you: http://www.cncphotoalbum.com/doityourself/wiring/wiring.htm
Now please keep in mind that a PO might have these all screwed up and nothing matches. Don't get disheartened, just rip em' all out and start over.
Ain't that a kick in the butt !!!! Seriously, your very best move would be to really start from scratch. That way you know what went where, is was done properly and the other issues go right out the window.
A $25.00 meter, some info from the net and you really should be good to go.
The library is an excellent place to find books and literature - so overlooked these days.
New switches and gauges are an everyday event on ebay. Even WM has some on sale every now and then.
Don't patch - replace. You'll be happier in the long run. :D
 
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