Hello all, new to this forum and have a few electric problems with my boat. Ive had a few smaller, simpler boats in the past, but this is my first bigger boat and it has many features I am unfamiliar with, but am learning. Ive been researching past posts on many different subjects and the search feature is a fountain of usefull advice, but please indulge a few tech questions that are somewhat covered partly in past posts, but I am still reading most previous posts as well.<br /><br />Recently acquired a 1973 Sea Ray 220 I-O that I cant seem to get the engine to turn over and start. 188 HP v-8 engine is clean with what appears to be virgin unhacked wiring in the engine compartment. Unfortunately, the under dash wiring is a terrible mess of splices and crimp-on terminals that have to be seen to be believed. What terminals are visiable at the fuse blocks are a mess of jumpers and corrosion, and I plan to replace the fuse blocks with new clean connections. It is easy to advise that I should carefully trace everything before removing, but I have reason to believe that the current wiring arrangement COULD be incorrect.<br /><br />Right now, the boat has two good fully charged batteries with a selector switch under one rear seat in the battery area and what looks to be a brand new 3 terminal, 3 position ignition switch mounted in the dash. Near this brand new switch is a loose red wire with white stripe and this has a eye similar to the three wires attatched to the starter switch and kinda looks like it should be attatched near, due to the similar slack of the other wires, but there isnt an unused terminal on the starter switch, so Im debating whether this new 3 terminal ignition switch is the proper one for this model, or should there be a 4 terminal ? Maybe this red w/white stripe wire should piggyback on one of the terminals ? On one of the switche's contacts is an obviously new RED wire that runs to the rear and connects to the left post of the two small posts on the solenoid between the large battery posts. Playing with a meter, the red wire with white stripe always has power regardless of the key's position, but the other three wires do not have any power. I wish I had the schematic for the key switch so I would know which post is what, and Im baffled by what the new red wire to the solenoid is there for.<br /><br />When I turn the ignition switch to start cranking the engine, nothing happens. Regardless of the position of the ignition switch. Anyone know what the function of the two small posts on the solenoid are for ? Knowing this may help me figure out the mess and what I need to repair to get this boat engine fired up. I guess I was wondering exactly what I need as a minimum to just start the engine and hear it run before I begin reworking the underdash wiring fiasco. <br /><br />The engine looks to be Ford with a separate solenoid and as I remember from my youth, it was possible to "jump" the solenoid but as this is a boat, I defer to the more experienced members of this forum for advice before I burn anything up. There are six or seven various ground wires attatched to one of the solenoid mounting bolts and all Ive tried so far is to remove all of these and sand the end terminals bare and remounted to confirm proper grounding.<br /><br />If I can provide any other data to assist, please advise as I am anxious to verify that this electrical nightmare actually will run. The boat itself is in decent shape, solid floors, nice features, but the hacked wiring has me intimidated due to the volume of mish-mash.<br /><br />Thanks !
