Battery polarity on 1991 Evinrude

Apologies if a primer question. I have worked on cars for years, but am a boat newbie. I winterized my 1991 150HO Evinrude outboard for the first time last year. I pulled the battery to store it, and as I plan to charge it, have it load tested, and reinstall it, I am troubled by one thing. All the electronics cables (it is a very simple boat...maybe 3 cables for radio depth finder and bilge pump) seem to have been connected to the negative post. Could that be correct? In automotive, you would connect accessories to the positive post.

Are marine boats powered with reverse polarity? If so, I assume they are trickle charged differently as well. Or am I crazy and they are all positive polarity as with cars?

Thanks, Jon

Re: Battery polarity on 1991 Evinrude

It is not unusual to have someone hook some items to the battery. But if they did the positive cables would go to the + post and negative to the - ground. The bilge pump may have a brown positive wire that is throwing you off.

Re: Battery polarity on 1991 Evinrude

Thanks. One person has suggested that the electronics are powered from under the dash, and these may be their ground cables that are coming back to the negative side of the battery. Guess I have some wire tracing to do.... Thanks again

Re: Battery polarity on 1991 Evinrude

Here's the thing with boats, people who usually rig these things usaully don't know what they are doing. Yes OMC has a rigging manual that gives certain guidelines but in this case, your motor is an alternator driven ignition meaning that all the components for ignition is underneath the flywheel. So yes it technically should be more "sightfull" like their should be a negative buss somwhere with all of the grounds centrally located and on newer battery ignition models battery voltage distribution is critical. It really easy to say you work on boats unfortunately...