Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

[deerhuntre]

I'm splicing the 1986 Control to the 1978 powerhead using the
1978 engine harness.

Please let me know if any of these connections are wrong as listed below.

Format is:
Item, manual-wire-number, 1986 wire color, 1978 wire color


Choke, 1 yellow/black TO Grey

N/A, 2 purple TO nothing-not connected

N/A, 3 Tan TO nothing-not connected

Starter Solenoid w/ground, 4 Black TO black that goes to battery negative

Rectifier with yel/red to stator, 5 Grey TO Brown

Switchbox, 6 Black/yellow TO White

Starter Solenoid, 7 Yellow/Red TO Yellow

Rectifier, 8 Red TO Red

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

OK, Prety close.

Purple to white for switched +12v used for gauges; This also powers choke thru choke switch.

If tan is overheat on '86 motor , then connect to noting as you stated

Grey wire on '86 is tach signal, correctly connected to brown

Black/yellow is spark killer, connect to orange wire.

Starter solenoid is solid yellow on both motors (I think)

 

[deerhuntre]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

One Question:

So, it doesn't look like the Orange goes to anything in the engine. Orange is labeled as 'E' and is shown on the control side but nothing on the engine side for the 1978 harness. How does that one work?

Thank you for the clarification.

 

[emckelvy]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

That would be "E" for "Earth" or ground. This should be the wire which grounds the ADI powerpacks to kill spark.

I'm assuming the older motor is a distributor model and there is no "spark kill by grounding" function, since the older-style CDI Power Pack is powered-up by +12V to the red terminal and white terminal to get spark.

So, the orange wire would be 'spared out' in your application.

HTH..........ed

 

[deerhuntre]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

Ed, I'm a little bit confused.

The letter 'e' in the label is part of 8 letters, 'a' thru 'h' in the manual. And, you are right, my motor is an older 'type II' ignition. But I don't know what you mean by 'spared out'.

In the harness from the 1978 is an orange wire. So is it correct that the 1986 Black/yellow goes to the orange in the 1978 harness, but that orange really doesn't go anywhere and that's ok since there's no 'spark kill' as described above?

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

Deer, The Merc harnesses from 1978 were made to work with both the battery powered CDI, like your motor was, and the ADI like the 3 and 4 cylinder motors had in 1978. On the 1150, the orange wire was unused since the ignition required +12VDC on the white wire to run. They simply switched off the +12VDC to kill the motor.

On the 3 and 4 cylinder motors in 1978, the orange wire was connected to the switchbox to kill the spark, and the white wire was unused in the motor harness. Since you are transitioning from a battery powered CDI ignition to an ADI ignition on the '87 motor, you need to use the orange wire. You might find that Salmon is a better description of the color for the orange wire in your harness.

 

[deerhuntre]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

OK, I think I understand and have a plan for the splicing operation. I hope it works.

 

[emckelvy]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

Now I'm confused. I thought he was using a later-model, ADI-capable control box/harness and adapting it to run an older ('78) motor and was assuming the older motor has a distributor. If so, the orange wire has no function.

Quote: "I'm splicing the 1986 Control to the 1978 powerhead using the
1978 engine harness."

If he's running an older motor then he doesn't need (or care) about the ADI-kill wires coming from the control box, or need to connect them to the orange wire.

If the older motor is also an ADI, that's a different story.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

OK Ed, You may be correct and I may have turned it around in my head. Well it won't hurt to splice all the wires correctly, whether they are used or not.

 

[deerhuntre]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

You are right, I'm connecting a 1986 control to a 1978 powerhead.

The 1986 has one coil per cylinder.
The 1978 has a distributer with one coil (CD dist, Thunderbolt).

I have the 1978 control sitting in my garage and inside that harness is an orange wire. However, there is no corresponding wire in the engine side, which leads me to wonder what that orange does. So, connecting the kill (black/yellow) to the orange may just not do anything other than make a 'home' for the orange.

Does this clarify my question and am I wrong?

Maybe the orange does something in that motor connector or goes to a ground somehow. Would some photo's help?

I also found some switch diagrams here in the forum that are confirming what you guys are saying, pretty much. It is confusing to me, but I think I understand. I suppose setting it up and turning the key will be the test. I'll report the results.

Again, let me know if I should include labeled photo's so we can all be talking about the same wires and connectors.

 

[emckelvy]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

On the older remote control harnesses (ones that plug into the side of the motor), Merc put all the wires needed to run either a "mag-kill" type of motor, or a motor which needed switched +12V to power the CDI ign. So, you could take that kind of control box and plug it into a CDI 115HP Merc with distributor, or plug it into a 50HP Merc that has a Lightning Engergizer ign with "mag kill". Or, plug it into an old Mark 58 4 with a magneto and it'll work in that too.

The difference is on the engine side. Only the pins needed to run that particular motor have internal wiring connected. The other pins are dead-ended or just don't exist in that particular harness.

So, you can decide what to do with the ADI "kill" wires, connect or not. The advantage of connecting the ADI "kill" wire(s) to the orange wire would be that that if you were ever to run a "mag-kill" motor with that control box, it would work if you connected the wires as E.C. Kiekhaefer intended them to be

Cheers and hope that clears it up for ya............ed

 

[deerhuntre]

Re: Splicing 1986 Control to 1978, are these connections correct?

Yes, that clears it up much better, thank you!