Electrial Issues on a 87 Sunsport

[knoble]

It kind of sounds like you have miss wires your coil and solenoid! I cannot know for sure but those volt readings you are giving are really wacky! What is it at the solenoid? and at the positive on the starter? i am going to post I PCM basic wiring schematic on my personal page/ album. Hopefully this will help in your issues!

[FecalFajita]

Thanks for the wiring diagram.

As far as I can tell, it's wired exactly the same, other than my ballast resistor is removed and wired right though, and instead I have an internally resisted coil. I talked to someone from skidim.com today, and they said that should be fine. Maybe they're wrong though..?

Today I put a new solenoid in it, and it didn't change a thing - Turn the key, and all gauges and electrical turns off instead of activating the starter. If I short the solenoid, the starter fires up and the boat starts like nothing is wrong, besides the coil giving strange readings...

[knoble]

It sounds like you have a short some where on the starting circuit. You are grounding out on one of those wires. I would check the positive battery cable, the positive going to your dash, and the wire going to the solenoid for a short. It has to be shorting on a ground or another wire to make the dash do that.

[FecalFajita]

Ok, So I tore the dash apart and found some strangeness...I (crudely) modified the diagram Knoble gave me to show you guys what I'm dealing with here...

Black Pearl:



Standard PCM:

[knoble]

nothing is showing up on your diagram!?!?!?

[FecalFajita]

You can't see the image? or it's blank? or..what?

[knoble]

Black Pearl:



Standard PCM:



this is all I see!

[87SunSportMikeyD]

I see everything. I don't see any issues there, although I currently do not have my spare battery hooked into the ignition switch. Is there any kind of battery seperator/combiner/relay (IE perko, BlueSea, SurePower)? Good luck man.

Hey sorry I didn't call you on Sunday my cell was dead, charger at work, your # at work. I will ring you this weekend if you want.

[FecalFajita]

Well I tore the dash all apart, found a few mis-wirings, and installed a 4 post ignition switch. Before the buzzer/speaker was unplugged, and the hour meter would go up if you had the key on. That's all sorted out and it starts and runs normally now!

Hopefully it stays that way...if not I'm probably going to take it to a shop to have it checked out.

Thanks for the help everyone.

MikeyD, Give me a call, I should be around...possibly even with a working boat!

[FecalFajita]

I took the boat out last night and it ran perfectly. But for some reason the breaker popped the first time I turned the engine off. After pushing the magic red button it worked fine, and didn't pop at all after that.

So, what exactly causes the breaker to trip? Also, with the new 105 amp alternator, should I upgrade the wiring to a larger gauge?