1988 bayliner capri BR

I have a 1988 bayliner capri BR with and 85hp ob. I am trying to get the horn to work and am not very successful. I was under the dash looking at the fuses and other wiring and had my 12v test light with me. I started to check the fuses and was getting nothing so I checked the main power to the fuses and nothing. I am not familiar with reading wiring diagrams so those are of no help to me. Where do the main power lines for the fuses originate from. Any help would be welcome.:facepalm:

Re: 1988 bayliner capri BR

Wiring diagrams/schematics are simply a pictorial of the arrangement of wires. Each line represents a wire. Whether on a boat, in a car, truck, airplane or the space shuttle, current flows from a source (normally a battery, through a main fuse or circuit breaker within six inches of the battery, to a fuse or circuit breaker panel. From there the circuits branch out (each fuse is protecting a circuit) to a device via its switch. From the device, current flows back to the battery on the ground wire. Generally there is a ground buss (connection point) at the helm or built into the fuse/breaker panel where all the ground connections are made. Then one larger wire connects that point back to the negative terminal on the battery to complete the current path. In your case, you need to start at the battery. You should find a red wire and black wire of either #8 or 10 gauge. That is the main feed to the fuse panel. Check for a fuse or circuit breaker in the red wire close to the battery. Make sure the wires are connected and the fuse or breaker are ok. Use your voltmeter (neg on battery post, POS test lead on the battery side -- then the load side of the fuse or breaker. No voltage? Battery is dead or the wiring is bad. If you have voltage then follow those wires to the fuse panel. If you have no voltage into the panel, either the ground or the feed is disconnected or broken somewhere along the line. When you do succeed at getting +12 volts to the horn, make sure it is grounded. If it still doesn't work, remove it and connect directly to a battery. If it still doesn't work, it's toast. A bad switch will prevent 12 volts from reaching the horn. Again -- use the voltmeter. red lead on the INPUT side of the switch, black lead to KNOWN GOOD GROUND. Then press the button with the red lead on the load (horn) side of the switch/button. No voltage means the switch/button is toast.

Here is a simple diagram: Just pretent the light is the horn.

Re: 1988 bayliner capri BR

The only attatched to my battery are the cables. No other wires. Never has been since i have had the boat. Of course the horn has never worked either. Do i need to run wires my self.

Re: 1988 bayliner capri BR

There should be separate 10 gauge wires from the battery terminals to the fuse block and negative buss bar. The positive lead should have a fuse or circuit breaker within a foot of the battery to protect these wires. A 20 amp fuse or breaker will be fine.

Re: 1988 bayliner capri BR

Well sir -- look at the diagram again -- carefully. If you don't see any wires feeding the fuse panel that might account for why you don't have power at any of the fuses. In that case, yes you need to add them. It may be that the fuse panel feed was wired from the "A" terminal on the ignition switch. If that's the case, it was done incorrectly. Ignition switches are not designed or intended to carry that current load. The "A" terminal should power only the gauges.

Re: 1988 bayliner capri BR

There are 10 gauge wires attatched to the fuse panel but not the battery. I will trace them from there back to find out where they go to. Somehting that is confusing me is that the lights all work and the bilge pump work too. Are these supposed to run through the fuse panel and maybe were wired in wrong by the PO? @ Silvertip. My engine has some lables on it for the electrical. Can I find the "A" terminal using these? Or are you refering to the actual keyed switch. Sorry for the novice questions but electrical is just not my thing.

Re: 1988 bayliner capri BR

alloffroad said:

There are 10 gauge wires attatched to the fuse panel but not the battery. I will trace them from there back to find out where they go to. Somehting that is confusing me is that the lights all work and the bilge pump work too. Are these supposed to run through the fuse panel and maybe were wired in wrong by the PO? @ Silvertip. My engine has some lables on it for the electrical. Can I find the "A" terminal using these? Or are you refering to the actual keyed switch. Sorry for the novice questions but electrical is just not my thing.

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Look at the back of the ignition switch. Each terminal on the switch has a letter along side it. Those are what I'm referring to. If other accessories work then you are misleading us because in your first post you said you had no voltage at any of the fuses. Power can get to the fuse panel in only two ways. 1) the two wires directly from the battery, or via the ignition switch "A" terminal. If you use a test light to check for voltage you need to have the ground lead connected to a KNOWN GOOD ground. IT cannot light otherwise.

Re: 1988 bayliner capri BR

So I got the horn to work. I traced the power and ground wires from the fuse panel to the battery. The red is attatched to the positive but the black was not attatched and yet the accessories still work???? On another note the fuse panel, there is one wire(red) on the panel that gives power but there is nothing on the other end. Does anybody know what goes there? There were 2 green wires bundled up under some tape that i am not sure whay they go to. They have the connections on the end like the ones for the fuse panel.