Electrical issues 150CC

[albaris]

Hello,..I have a problem with my 2005 150CC w/ 50HP Yamaha. At first my tachometer stopped working, so I tried just fussing with the wires going into the tach to make sure they were tight. Engine was running when I did this. I noticed that there were 2 wires coming from the fuel gauge that looked like they need to be connected to each other as one had a male end and one a female end, so I connected them and all I noticed is that the fuel gauge went from reading 3/4 to Empty, so I disconnected them again. The tach did not work however. I put the gauges back into the console, and then shut the boat off. Went to re-start the boat and nothing.....no cranking, stone dead.

I looked on the right side of the dash, and the three rocker switches that control the livewell, bilge and Nav lights were all working as they are supposed to. Little red lights come on and the accessory turns on as designed. Also shut off as they are supposed to....so I am getting power to the dash, but it doesn't seem as I am getting power to the ignition switch. There is a AM/FM radio, VHF radio and depthfinder that is also not getting power. The only fuse that I could find is a 25AMP fuse coming right off the positive terminal of the battery, and that fuse is fine. I checked continuity throgh the fuse and it is good.

Are there other fuses somewhere else that I am not finding?

All the inline fuses for the radios, depthfinder and battery charger are good.

I opened the hatch behind the console and checked all connections, they looked good, but I disconnected them all and reconnected with no luck.

What am I missing....I would appreciate any help that can be given here....Thank You

[pamarine]

What color are the two wires you hooked together then unhooked? Also, I have included a very rough schematic of what the intrument electrical circuit shoul look like if you are under the helm staring at the back of the panel (I apologize for it's quality). Wire that have a dot where the intersect are connected, no dot=no electrical connection. I'm thinking about what would cause the starting circuit to go dead. May need to break out a DMM and run some checks for me.

[albaris]

Pamarine,

Thanks for the diagram, I will use it when I go to the marina later today to see how similar mine is. I don't have a battery meter, as mine is an hour meter in that spot.
I believe the two wires that I connected were black, and looking at your diagram it looks as though one came from the ground and the other from the sender. I wish the back of my instrument panel looked as neat as your diagram with only those few wires, but there are three harnesses and a multitude of different wires.
My ignition switch looks totally different because there is a cut off switch and what I think is some sort of a buzzer alarm wired into it.

Is there a fuse in the starting circuit somewhere? If so, where would it be located? Also what is a DMM....as you can probably tell, I am not mechanically inclined.

Thanks for all your help, and I hope I can resolve this ASAP.

[NCangler]

I checked with the factory on this to try to get a direction for you to look and this was their response:

I think what he did is plug the extra tach wires together, hot and ground. If it was a universal panel you have an extra gray,black,and power wire tie wrapped loose under there. He probably blew a fuse on the engine.

Hope this helps!

[cagrove]

On my Mercury 60 hp, there is a fuze on the engine itself. I'm sure you have one also. I also had a problem with my tachometer and found out the wires from my stator (yellow wires at top of engine) had fuzed together and shorted. What I would do is:

1) Check the engine fuze.
2) Check any wires coming from the stator to the voltage regulator.
3) Check any wires (esp a gray one) coming from the voltage regulator. The gray one is for the Tachometer.

I'm sure it's something simple, just be thorough in the checking as I overlooked mine several times before I noticed it.

Good luck.

[albaris]

PROBLEM RESOLVED ! !

Thanks to Randy and Cagrove....As soon as I read both your responses, I drove to the marina, checked under the cowl and sure enough found a fuse. Took a look at it and it was blown.....there was a spare attached to the wire (Thanks Yamaha) and now everything is back to normal, but the tachometer is still not working, but, at least the boat is running. It was 98 degrees at the marina today, so I will fool with the tach once it cools down a bit later on in the week.

Thanks again for all your help and input.

[cagrove]

Glad to hear you found part of the problem and you're back up and running. Good luck with the tach!