Wiring

I have a 79 Starcraft Islander with a 120 hp OMC/Chevy 4 cylinder that I'm converting into a center console. The wiring mess under the dash is simply unbelievable. I'd love to simplify it. What are the wires that come from the large "power" plug next to the motor? All of these wires run up to the dash. A previous owner spliced into several of these wires. Are they all power wires? Or are there ground wires in there as well? Thanks

Re: Wiring

Hey JD, take some photos and post up over here...

http://forums.iboats.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23

Those guys are smart!

Re: Wiring

OK. I need to get some pics up of the boat as well. It's coming along nicely. The wiring, however, is a sticking point!

Re: Wiring

WHAT??????? need pic. to see what you need . Description won't help much.

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To give you a simple answer JD, some of the wires in the bundle from the motor will be hot yes. Now which ones I do not know and where they go I don't know that either without a schematic of the harness.

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In all honesty I don't really care where they go. I'd just as soon rewire it with a simple harness. The only thing I really need is the starter switch and have the alternator charging my battery. Any ideas?

Re: Wiring

I went through the same thing. What colors are they? You're talking about the wires from the cannon plug right?

Big mess, I think I can help. Need pics back and forth and lots of patience. Some go to gages, some to ignition. These will be from dash to motor. These are not to the horn, bilge, lights.

I broke it into 3 wiring harnesses. One from the cannon plug back to the motor, One from the cannon plug up to the dash, and one from the dash to auxilary items (bilge,blower...). The first two are related, the third is totally seperate.

I hope this makes sense, and I hope I understand what you're asking.

Don

Re: Wiring

I understand. I'm assuming the cannon plug is the large plug above the starter. The existing harness has been "violated" by a previous owner. There are more splices and electrical tape than you can imagine. As it is none of the guages really worked. The wiring for them was some sort of canibalized mess of crimped wires and tape. I'm only putting in a tach, water temp and oil pressure guage. The horn, lights, radio and blower I can wire independently from a fused switch block I want to install. I guess I'm looking for a simple harness that will start and stop the engine, lift the drive and charge the battery. I will try to get pics up this weekend of the plug and wires. Thanks

Bwana Don said:

I went through the same thing. What colors are they? You're talking about the wires from the cannon plug right?

Big mess, I think I can help. Need pics back and forth and lots of patience. Some go to gages, some to ignition. These will be from dash to motor. These are not to the horn, bilge, lights.

I broke it into 3 wiring harnesses. One from the cannon plug back to the motor, One from the cannon plug up to the dash, and one from the dash to auxilary items (bilge,blower...). The first two are related, the third is totally seperate.

I hope this makes sense, and I hope I understand what you're asking.

Don

Click to expand...

Re: Wiring

The out drive is a separate plug. Oops, there's 4 harnesses. Look in my thread and then ask some questions.

Find the sending units on the block. How many and what colors?

Harnesses;
1) Cannon plug back to engine.
2) Cannon plug forward to dash

3) Fuseblock out to bilge, blower, lights etc
4) Fuseblock back to trim pump

That's how I dissected it. It helps to break it down into smaller bites. They are all seperate too, except the first two involving the cannon plug.

Re: Wiring

Thanks Don

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Yea, thanks in advance. I've been putting my wiring off to the last thing. I's also a mess and I know I've got to redo some of it. That's my tomorrow's job, but I think tomorrow has about came.

Re: Wiring

There is an ABYC standard for marine wiring which the manufacturer must follow. The problem is that they can add variations in via wire stripping that can throw you. The black with no stripe is alway negative. The red with no stripe is always positive. These are battery negatve and positive. Black with a white stripe is used to ground the ignition systems and stop the boat in an emergency. Yellow with a red stripe is ignition and will terminate at both the ignition switch and starter solenoid. Purple 12v + is for accessories and may or may not come from the ignition switch but it is always supposed to be fused and switched. Blue is for gauge lights. Gray is normally for your tach. White is nav and anchor lights. Switch panels are usually wired with orange for power and do not get powered from the ignition switch like the purple. These are normally wired through a fuse box but may also have integral breakers. You also may find light blue used for alarms brown for temp guages and darkl brown/white for the trim sender. Pink is usually the fuel sender.

All bets are off if this is a total hack job, your goal then is to get it back to ABYC standards.

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Here's what I did. I'm no electrician by any means, so take that into account.

Battery in boat. Red heavy (forgot gage) wire to fusbox, black heavy wire to negative bus bar. FB ad NBB mounted under dash area about 2 feet apart. You need a two wire system and you ground back to the battery. Never ground to the boat. Put an inline fuse on the wire from the battery to fuseblock.

A red wire goes to the ignition.

I need to look at mine to see how I jumped the gages and where I grunded the dash too. This will get you going, I'm sure other will chime in.

Are you going to use the existing cannon plug? You might want to cut back on the harness to a place you can work from. Solder splices and shrink tubing are your friend, liquid tape too. Good set of crimpers is a must.

Good luck.

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I"m hoping to just replace the black battery wire from the starter to the positive on the battery with red, take off the wire nuts and replace them with butt connectors and shrink tubing, and fix broken wires, about 15 ends of them, it's an odd number anyway. Than make sure get everything working. Right now that's just fixing wipers, horn, and lights, I think.

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Wiring has been cleaned up considerably! I found the wiring diagram. With the help of a couple friends we got it done. The floor is carpet ready. The center console is ready for steering and guages. I'm finishing up some side wall panels. I will post pics when I wrap it up. 22' of center console bliss is becoming a reality.