1976 18' Starcraft Holiday

[jeggs101]

I just bought a 1976 Starcraft Holiday boat, test drive went well after the seller "stepped on" the transom so the prop would go down. Some of the lights didn't work so a friend (?) said he would do some some work on it and fix the lights while I went to get a truck, hook the trailer up and pull it out of the lake, my friend (?) said he needed to "fix" a few things and would have it done the next day. after several hours he came up to the boat ramp with the boat and when I noticed I had the key in my pocket I new I was in trouble. The wires around the battery/engine are all messed up, the transom wont go up and just makes a high pitch sound (no fluid?), bilge pumps don't come on, lights don't work, IT'S A MESS! where do I start, can't find a service manual,HELP!!!!!!!!!

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 1976 18' Starcraft Holiday

welcome to iboats

first thing is to relax. If it looks like a spiders web of messed up wiring then welcome to owning a old boat.

basic pointers you need to understand is there are 2 sets of wires on a boat ( 3 sets if you have a trolling motor). The first is the motor harness and that does have a print that shows where everything is connected. The second is a boat wiring harness that you can not get a print for but its all basically the same so we have generic prints to help you. Look at the top of the electrical forum under stickys for all sorts of help on the generic wiring diagrams and how to use a volt meter.

you will need to purchase a cheap volt meter then we will deal with one piece at a time. Its not a spiders web its a lot of single wires that may or may not be correctly connected so lets start with the first issue and thats checking the oil in the trim unit as it wont help to fix the electrical if you burn the pump up.

If you can post pics it would realy help