Re: Gas Guage
I have an '84 4 Winns Marquise 170 that the gas guage does not work. Which wires go to it and how do you get to the gas tank?
You will PROBABLY have 3 wires to worry about.
First off, in the center of the floor of your boat, you should have an access plate. There are usually 2 kinds of access plates/covers. One type of access plate you pry up, the other you spin. If you have a pry up type, you put a flat screw driver in the place where the OUTER RING indents and pry it up. If you have one that spins, there will be 2 indents in the top of the access cap. Put a screw driver in one of the places on the center plate and get it to spin 1/4 of a turn. In most cases, the one on the floor is a pry up type.
As for your gas gage, you should have 3 wires altogether. After you pry up the access plate, the sender will be in plain view. There should be a round aluminum plate about 3 inches in diameter or a black 2 inch diameter black plastic plate with 5 screws holding it in place on the top of the gas tank.
There are two wires attached to this sender. One is on the center post (the positive, or sender wire) and it is held down by a nut on a threaded post. the other is a slip on "spade lug" (This is the ground wire) and it attaches to the spade lug connector on the top of the sender.
Take note of the color of these wires when you are looking at the sender.
Look at the back of the gas gage. There are 3 wires on the back of the gas gage you need to be concerned with.
LOOKING AT THE BACK OF THE GAS GAGE,
There will be 3 brass threaded posts coming out of the back of the gas gage that the wires we are concerned with are attached to.
The wire on the LEFT of the gas gage is your "positive" or "ignition" wire from the battery. It gives the gas gage power and also allows the gas gage to "light up" at night. As soon as you turn the key one click to the right, this wire gives power to the gas gage.
The wire going to the center of the gas gage is the sender wire and the wire color SHOULD coorespond to the center wire that is mounted on the sender.
The wire on the right is the negative or "ground" wire and it also should coorespond to the wire mounted to the spade lug ground on the sender.
There are many ways to test what is wrong, with volt meters and that stuff but because the sender in the floor might be SO far away from the gage, you might have to do what I did to check if everything is working and 90% of the time, the sender is usually the culprit.
First off, if you have a battery switch, turn your batteries off! If you DON'T have a battery switch, disconnect your batteries! It only takes a minute!
Knowing what we know right now, there is an easy way to check if it works and all you need is wire and some electrical connections.
Make 3 wires with the following:
2 - 2 foot pieces of wire (one red, one black so you don't get confused when testing) with a spade lug on one end and a ring lug on the other
1 - 2 foot piece of wire (Red for the center connections) with ring lugs on both ends.
Disconnect the wires from your sender unit.
Remove the 5 screws that hold your fuel sender in your gas tank. Remove the sender and PLEASE notice how it comes out because it HAS to go back on and mount the EXACT same way as it came out! Place something over the hole in your gas tank so nothing falls into your gas tank. Inspect your sender.
* Sometime you can tell just by looking at the sender if there is something wrong like corrosion or something is broken. If it all seems OK, go on to the next step.
Attach the one of the pieces of wire from the IGNITION wire to the RIGHT terminal of your gas gage.
Attach one of the pieces of wire (The black one) from the GROUND on the sender to the GROUND lug on the back of the gas gage.
Attach one of the pieces of wire (The Red One) to the center connection of your gas gage and then to the center connection of the sender.
reconnect your batteries or turn your batteries back on.
Turn your key ON, Don't try to start the motor, just turn your key on so it clicks ON and your other gages on your dash come alive.
As you are holding the aluminum plate or the black plastic of the sender, lift and lower the "float" on the end of the sender arm.
* If you are lifting and lowering the float and nothing is going on, either your gas gage is bad OR your sender is bad.
* If your gas gage moves from empty to full and back to empty again, there is something wrong with your boats wiring.
If your wiring is bad, run new wires.
If your sender is bad, Moeler sells an entire gas gage/gas sender assembly, in a package for $50 bucks and if your sender or gage are bad, buy it and install it.
