Electrical issue on Sea Fox 187 cc

[pieceofwork]

I purchased a 2009 Sea Fox 187 Center Console a few months ago and the only issue I've had with it is the fuel gauge doesn't work. I didn't think too much about it as I never trust the things anyways so I just let it be. Yesterday was the first time I've had the boat out after dark and I noticed when I flipped the nav lights on that the gauge mysteriously started functioning. Also, when i turned the lights on the trim gauge pegged out in such a way that the boat should have dove like a submarine. When I cut the lights off everything went back to normal (fuel not working but trim working). I haven't had a chance to dig in to it yet but did check out a few of the wiring schematics posted here, does it sound like the wiring from the nav/anchor switch and the ignition could be swapped? If not, any other ideas of things I can check next time I take it out?

Thanks!

 

[NYBo]

Re: Electrical issue on Sea Fox 187 cc

Welcome to iboats!:welcome:

It sounds like your instruments have lost their connection to the negative battery side of the circuit ("ground").

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Electrical issue on Sea Fox 187 cc

nybo is correct you have a ground problem so the positive is hunting for any ground it can find. Locate the main ground buss near the drivers seat it will be a strip where all the black wires meet then clean all the terminals especially the largest one then find that wire near the battery and clean that one as well. As a test you can run a wire from battery negative to the buss and see if everything starts working again, then find the bad connection.

 

[pieceofwork]

Re: Electrical issue on Sea Fox 187 cc

Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully I can get down there this evening and take a look at it. The part that really confused me is the trim gauge stopped working as soon as the lights were turned on. Could an open ground cause that too?

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Electrical issue on Sea Fox 187 cc

Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully I can get down there this evening and take a look at it. The part that really confused me is the trim gauge stopped working as soon as the lights were turned on. Could an open ground cause that too?

yes as the trim sensor is a negative path and the gauge gets real confused when the light try's to use this path to ground.