Where can I source a 3-way switch that matches the others in my 92 sunsport?

[trayson]

I am thinking that a 3-way switch might be nice to have for the bilge pump. It seems that many people will wire up a bilge pump to be OFF/ON/AUTO. Mine seems to be ON/AUTO. If I got a new switch, something that matches the rest of mine would be best.

Or maybe I'd be asking for trouble by having an "off" setting for something as important as a bilge pump?

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WEMEW6vporE/UVO5aN2GJtI/AAAAAAAANuI/kPMmd8GG44g/s800/photo%2520%25286%2529.jpg

[inair]

I don't know how the switches are set up on the "newer" boats but most pumps you find available now days are automatic but can be can be turned on with a switch thus bypassing the auto mode. The switch on my dash is only "on" or "off" but there may be a way to wire your three position switch to only use two positions?

[trayson]

I don't know how the switches are set up on the "newer" boats but most pumps you find available now days are automatic but can be can be turned on with a switch thus bypassing the auto mode. The switch on my dash is only "on" or "off" but there may be a way to wire your three position switch to only use two positions?

Yeah, I think that's now mine is now. the two positions are "auto" and "ON". the only way to turn "off" the bilge pump is to turn the perko switch to OFF, or to pull a fuse. Not that it's necessarily a bag thing to have it that way. (except when the auto swtich in the pump goes bad and makes the pump run and run and run).

I might just keep it how it is. I can't think of a ton of situations where I'd need the ability to turn the pump OFF rather than AUTO.

[92SupraComp]

Sorry dude, out of luck, you see, the switches that supra used, are the most assinine things ever. They are 6 post dual throw, double pole switches. The bilge pump is permanent auto (AH! our fuse blew so auto never worked) the float wire runs straight to the fuse board. The switch has a circuit to run the pump and light the switch back light. I dare you to pull of the switch panels and try to make sense of it. It was up to me to redo the entire dash so I just ripped it all out, didn't even bother. They ran the only ground for every thing right off the back of the bilge switch with 3 piggy backs... and for the switches, we used there euro style switches:

http://www.delcity.net/store/LED-Illuminated-Single-Pole-Euro!Style-Rocker-Switches/p_796736

Delcity has a ton of other awesome things that you may want to use, as well as some other cool switches.

If ya could, pull out the left switch panel and take a pic of the mess, I want to see how bad it was before I over hauled ours :P

[92SupraComp]

Hey I just found these new switches that they have, don't look the same but would be perfect for minimal wiring.

http://www.delcity.net/store/Illuminated-Surf-N-Turf-Rockers/p_788902.h_788921.t_1

They have them in SPST SPDT DPST DPDT perfect for Supra wiring

[trayson]

thanks for the info. might just leave it as AUTO and ON for my two positions.

[chris young]

thanks for the info. might just leave it as AUTO and ON for my two positions.

I think that's wise. My boat stays in the water all summer with often a couple of weeks between visits, so I'm super paranoid about the bilge pump and the thought of being most of the way home and wondering if the bilge switch was in auto or off would be bad for me for sure. I really don't see much point of an "off" position.

I have to agree though, the wiring on these boats (as well as the lame wiring diagrams to go with it) is horrid. I've been toying completely re wiring my boat, and at some point for sure I will. But I somehow doubt I'd be able to allow myself to re wire without a total rebuild of the dash. Kind of like when I just intended to pull the harmonic damper to get a new one and I find myself sandblasting and re painting all the pulleys on the motor.

[92SupraComp]

Supra for what ever reason had 2 live feeds going to the back our boat that just ending inside the wire loom, both the fuses for these two separate feeds had blown...

What I did was
pull the dash off, go through and splice in another ground at several spots behind the gauges
Cut the feed for the dash lights as they hook in at the tach and are wired to be always on, wired those into the NAV ANC switch
Put a brass 10 lead buss bar on the dividing wall in the boat and ran a 10 AWG ground to the battery and connected the original 10 AWG ground that goes back to the motor
Ran another 10 AWG lead from the fuse panel to the battery
Then the fun began with the grounds, somehow they managed to make 2 circles out of the grounds (ended where they started...), so I cut them and ran those the grounds so what once used to be one long thin ground wire for many things just became 4 separate grounds that could actually handle what was on them
We also added a depth finder in place of the clock (it was $80 for a used clock!) and added that to the wire loom...

Supra has a very good positive feed setup actually, unlike our CC both the ground and positive were crap, and they put 3 connectors on the dash loom so it comes out really easy, and behind the gauges is a big loom of many wires that is nice to build on and keep things tidy as the wires run from the fuse panel up behind the dash (left to right) and then leaves out the right side... Sorry, hard to explain everything from last summer but if you like wiring and electrical (like me) its a good fun challenge that works out real well in the end...