4Winns2
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2006
- Messages
- 327
Hi, how are you? Thanks for taking a review on this matter- -sorry for the long post. The particulars:
Boat:
1990 Four Winns Freedom 195 with an OMC 4.3 litre (pic below)
Flipped the engine (I didn't but an experienced boat mechanic did) the first year I got it three years ago with a long remanned block.
I'm about to attack what appears to be a wiring issue and not faulty gauges that need to be replaced. However, I'm not sure of that, thus I'm in need of some electrical expertise. Let me characterize the best I can what's going on here.
These first four gauges, no big deal but it's here for background info.
1 Gas gauge: the only gauge that works right- -a very good thing.
2 Trim gauge: don't care if it ever works since I trim by hull feel and rooster size
3 Speedometer: just put a new speedo on the hull since the last one fell apart in my hands. Seems to work fine but I don't really care about this either since I know when I'm going fast enough.
4. Volt Meter: this seems to be accurate as it always runs/bounces a little in the middle of the scale and she'll jump up when the batt needs a small charge.
Now, these three are making me scratch my head to the point of baldness (and, I'm already on my way in this area).
5 Tachometer: didn't work at all the first year I had it. It stuck at 2800 RPMs whether the boat was on or off. The second year it jump off the scale beneath zero to the six o'clock position. Later in that season it seemed to magically start working and was fine until this year. Again, she is stuck at the 2800 RPM mark but if I rev the engine a little she'll fall back down and come back up but very erractic. Won't go above 2800 though. Pulled the dash and checked all the connections on the back of the tach along with the dial that points to the right number- -even changed it to see if it made any difference, nope. Went back and assured the connections on the coil. It then occured to me that this could be an alternator driven tach- -oops- -which I didn't check. I've read up quite a bit on troubleshooting this but I'm still looking for more info.
6 Temp gauge: along with the tach, a must have for me, and you. Didn't work the first year. The second year I couldn't get it to work again. This year while on the muffs in the drive she magically started working???? I read up on this, pulled the tan wire off the sender at the manifold and grounded it to the block sending gauge bouncing every which way. It didn't peg all the way to the right like I thought it should but I thought the erractic behavior proved it was a good gauge. Don't know still? I'm going to try and run leads from the gauge direct to the sender to see if it's not the wiring in between somewhere.
BTW: I put a new raw water impeller in the outdrive (OMC makes this easy) this year and frequently check the elbows and valve covers to insure she is running cool enough.
7 Oil Pressure: this gauge has always worked well; at least I thought it did. This year, she will be three quarters on the up side of the scale at just past idle. When I take her out of the hole, the needle damn near pegs all the way. I changed the oil before putting her away last fall and checked the level then as I did this spring and every weekend before going out. Level is fine and oil is certainly clean so I know I'm not over pressuring the engine with this.
Another thing that happens from time to time is when I turn the nav lights off after an evening of dusk boating. The oil pressure gauge stays illuminated while all of the other gauges go dark along with the nav lights. I find that I can't even turn on my cuddy courtesy light. What I did was turn the ignition key to on and then turn it off again and that fixed that. It was late and dark and I was tired so I didn't even bother with it then. Sounds like an electrical nightmare doesn't it? Any help friends wouldn't be greatly appreciated.
Boat:
1990 Four Winns Freedom 195 with an OMC 4.3 litre (pic below)
Flipped the engine (I didn't but an experienced boat mechanic did) the first year I got it three years ago with a long remanned block.
I'm about to attack what appears to be a wiring issue and not faulty gauges that need to be replaced. However, I'm not sure of that, thus I'm in need of some electrical expertise. Let me characterize the best I can what's going on here.
These first four gauges, no big deal but it's here for background info.
1 Gas gauge: the only gauge that works right- -a very good thing.
2 Trim gauge: don't care if it ever works since I trim by hull feel and rooster size
3 Speedometer: just put a new speedo on the hull since the last one fell apart in my hands. Seems to work fine but I don't really care about this either since I know when I'm going fast enough.
4. Volt Meter: this seems to be accurate as it always runs/bounces a little in the middle of the scale and she'll jump up when the batt needs a small charge.
Now, these three are making me scratch my head to the point of baldness (and, I'm already on my way in this area).
5 Tachometer: didn't work at all the first year I had it. It stuck at 2800 RPMs whether the boat was on or off. The second year it jump off the scale beneath zero to the six o'clock position. Later in that season it seemed to magically start working and was fine until this year. Again, she is stuck at the 2800 RPM mark but if I rev the engine a little she'll fall back down and come back up but very erractic. Won't go above 2800 though. Pulled the dash and checked all the connections on the back of the tach along with the dial that points to the right number- -even changed it to see if it made any difference, nope. Went back and assured the connections on the coil. It then occured to me that this could be an alternator driven tach- -oops- -which I didn't check. I've read up quite a bit on troubleshooting this but I'm still looking for more info.
6 Temp gauge: along with the tach, a must have for me, and you. Didn't work the first year. The second year I couldn't get it to work again. This year while on the muffs in the drive she magically started working???? I read up on this, pulled the tan wire off the sender at the manifold and grounded it to the block sending gauge bouncing every which way. It didn't peg all the way to the right like I thought it should but I thought the erractic behavior proved it was a good gauge. Don't know still? I'm going to try and run leads from the gauge direct to the sender to see if it's not the wiring in between somewhere.
BTW: I put a new raw water impeller in the outdrive (OMC makes this easy) this year and frequently check the elbows and valve covers to insure she is running cool enough.
7 Oil Pressure: this gauge has always worked well; at least I thought it did. This year, she will be three quarters on the up side of the scale at just past idle. When I take her out of the hole, the needle damn near pegs all the way. I changed the oil before putting her away last fall and checked the level then as I did this spring and every weekend before going out. Level is fine and oil is certainly clean so I know I'm not over pressuring the engine with this.
Another thing that happens from time to time is when I turn the nav lights off after an evening of dusk boating. The oil pressure gauge stays illuminated while all of the other gauges go dark along with the nav lights. I find that I can't even turn on my cuddy courtesy light. What I did was turn the ignition key to on and then turn it off again and that fixed that. It was late and dark and I was tired so I didn't even bother with it then. Sounds like an electrical nightmare doesn't it? Any help friends wouldn't be greatly appreciated.
