A few instruments and gauges not working

[ol chap]

I took my boat in about two months to a service dealer to get ready for the summer, all instruments and gauges had been working fine from last year no issues. Received a call from them and they said only my tach and trim gauges were working and everything else was dead, including lights and horn, which I thought was a little odd but decided to skip the repair for now. After getting it back home I took a look under the dash and found a fuse board and some fuses seemed to be missing from important spots (attached picture; for reference I'll number the spots from left to right, 1-9). Upon further investigation, I think the wiring clip for spot 8 is used to power the instrument panel as a whole. Spots 6 and 8 have broken brackets and cannot hold a fuse securely, if I were to pull off the wiring clip from spot 8 and move to spot 2 and put a fuse there would that make the gauges work again? Or would it overload one side? As you can see in the picture they seem to be a little spread out. I'm not very familiar with these old fuse boards.

The boat is a Chapparal 198 XL with a 110 hp OMC Johnson outboard. Any other electronics work fine from I've been able to tell, and engine starts up and runs fine with no issues. Any help is appreciated.

 

[alldodge]

if I were to pull off the wiring clip from spot 8 and move to spot 2 and put a fuse there would that make the gauges work again?

That depends on "IF" spot 8 did power the gauges. If it did power the gauges then yes it should fix your issue. Now, most gauges are powered from the motor feed and not an auxiliary feed like what this one looks like. So again it will work if that is where the power comes from

There is only one feed to all the circuits so your not going to over load by moving them around

 

[dwco5051]

A lot of corrosion on those fuse holders and terminals. Shine them up, put the fuses back in an see what works.

 

[ol chap]

That depends on "IF" spot 8 did power the gauges. If it did power the gauges then yes it should fix your issue. Now, most gauges are powered from the motor feed and not an auxiliary feed like what this one looks like. So again it will work if that is where the power comes from

There is only one feed to all the circuits so your not going to over load by moving them around

Right, my bad I should have probably put that in my initial post, this seemed like the simplest place to start though with the problem solving, if that didn't work I was going to try to see if the actual switch on the dash that turns everything on/off is out. Appreciate the help though

 

[ol chap]

A lot of corrosion on those fuse holders and terminals. Shine them up, put the fuses back in an see what works.

It's not reflected in the photo but I have replaced all the fuses since they are still pretty cheap but I'll get a brush to everything and clean them up

 

[Thirsty Endgrain]

If that were mine I'd tear it out and replace it with a new blade style blue sea systems fuse panel, and not even bother with troubleshooting that thing. It's not a ton of work to do, and your current wiring doesn't look like a horrible rats nest to untangle. New terminals crimped on all the wires will show you if any of the wires are corroded (or rather how far they've corroded). The problem may solve itself with what I'd consider a maintenance item (I.e. New panel)

Spot 8 in your photo is oh so close to having the fuse short between pos and neg. Odd design that that's even possible.

Where are the rest of your negative connections? Are the wires just unhooked from the blades and not shown? Or like stated maybe they are coming off the engine.

 

[ol chap]

Where are the rest of your negative connections? Are the wires just unhooked from the blades and not shown? Or like stated maybe they are coming off the engine.

All the connections regarding the panel are shown in the photo. I hadn't taken anything apart yet at that point but yes I think there are some coming off the engine just not sure where but that's what makes me believe why I still have my tach and trim gauges still working.

 

[briangcc]

Probably fed by one of the working fuses.

Add me to the "Replace that fuseblock" group. That'd be the first thing I'd do.