Boat Tank Wiring

[HONKER1]

I have a '86 aluminum 18' starcraft. I believe it would be classified as a super sport, but not 100% sure. When I purchased the boat, the wiring was a nightmare. The previous owner used extension cord and some wires were hooked up and some were just cut off and laying in the battery area.
I purchased a new starter battery ( 2 month ago ) and set out to restore the wiring. With a little help from this website, I thought I had the wiring completed. Today, the new battery is totally dead. I mean it won"t even take a charge. When I hook it to the charger, the currect breaker in the charger pops. I would consider this a gone battery.
I am suspect the wiring to the fuel gauge and gas tank. I checked continuity of the black ground wire connected to the tank. this was OK.
The thing that is puzzling me is that the pink gauge wire was showing about 20 ohms when I touched the pink wire and the aluminum tank. Wouldn't this be a direct ground, seeing that the Black ground wire was hooked to the tank.
Can someone please clear this up for me, or does anyone have a wiring schematic or know were I can get one for this model of starcraft.
Any help would be vvvvvvvery appreciated.

 

[burroak]

Re: Boat Tank Wiring

Why are you touching the pink wire to the tank?

I have a diagram that I used to completely rewire a '72 18' SuperSport outboard. I can send it to you as an attachment to an e-mail if you like.

If you are in a hurry, Google "stingray boats general faq"; scroll to the very bottom of the page and click on dc wiring. That diagram illustrates just about any circuit that you may want to wire into a boat.

 

[HONKER1]

Re: Boat Tank Wiring

Burrock...I am I glad you replied to this problem. I will Google as you subjected.
I wasn't touching the pink wire to the tank. I was using a ohm meter to check for continuity. I touched the connection of the pink wire with one probe and touched the tank with the other probe and I was surprised to see continuity of about 20 ohms. This lead me to believe I may be loosing amps from the battery because the tank is grounded to aluminum boat with a white wire. Also the tank is grounded to the battery with a black wire.
Wouldn't this situation cause the battery to go dead?
Am I making sense or Am I way off base?
I would think the pink wire would not be making contact with the tank? Is it possible the sending unit is bad, although the gauge seems to work. Is it possible the full gas tank, would cause a small continuity between the tank, gas, and pink wire connection? Just grasping for ideas of why the new battery went dead.
Lights and bilge pump wiring is pretty straight forward. Positive in, negative out. Gas gauge has has 3 wires, and I am not sure or the total function of the third wire and current load.

 

[burroak]

Re: Boat Tank Wiring

The wires at the fuel tank should be as follows: Pink attached to the sending unit, black wire bonded to the tank, your white wire should share the bonding site with the black wire and connect with the filler cap (I suspect that is to tame the pesky static charges running around).

On the gauge there should be a connector for the pink wire (S), a black ground (-), a purple to the ignition (I), and possibly a blue which you would connect to the nav light switch (it just back lights the gauges).