Wiring question

[DJ_Callahan_27]

The wiring in my boat is not how it came from the factory. Nothing is labled and not 100% sure what all the wires that are run into the battery compartment are for or what post (neg or pos) they need to be connected to. This is just for the two batteries for the TM, fish finder, and ect. The other battery for motor and fuel pump and ect. are fine. What should I do to fix this? Not sure what the breakers and relays mounted in there are for. Any help is appreciated. Thank DJ

[zooker]

troller on it own curcit or it will throw lines into the other devices.. every thing else on the crank battery..

zooker

[DJ_Callahan_27]

The way it is right now I have two batterys for the trolling motor but it also has other thing run to them aswell. looks like running lights, bow fish finder, and maybe more. It has more wires ran to them but I'm not sure why. It was this way when I bought the boat. Thinking about rewiring the boat that why I know whats what. How hard would it be to rewire the boat. It's a 1984 Procraft 1750?

[Rebbasser]

Not too hard to rewire it, but you may not need to. Like Zooker said, put the trolling motor on one set of batteries and everything else to the cranking battery. Most boats have a fuse panel under the console that everything is wired into.

[Carpetman]

DJ When we get one of these older boats with a wiring birds nest we use the old catch and release method. Take a red one off the battery. It's now released, now go find out what isn't working on the boat. (be sure everything was working to start with). A pump? A depth finder? A radio? Find and it and tag it--it's caught!
If your boat hasn't been bastardized too much: ALL RED WIRES GO TO THE POSITIVE AND ALL BLACK TO THE NEGATIVE. Watch for black wires that have red heat shrink near the end--sometimes this shows that he wire "COLOR" has been changed.

If you have a test meter, you can also use that to help with the discovery process. On most old boats, you'll find that 2 or 3 owners have added this and that and whatever and haven't even taken the time to take out the old wiring so if you find some dead wires in the process, mark them as such or yank them out.
Rick

[DJ_Callahan_27]

Alot of the wiring in this has been changed. Most of it in fact. But it wasn't done right or anything close to it. The termials the motor, fuel pump, and really everything the motor seems to be ok but the running lights on the boat, the bilge, the aireators, horns, trolling motor, fish finder, and how knows what else are all on the two batterys for the trolling motor. And to make matters worse all the wiring to all of it is yellow and not at all labled and it all the same gauge wire. That is the reason I was asking how hard it would be to just gut it and start over. Any sujestions on the matter are greatly appreciated, not really sure where to begin....lol

[Carpetman]

I've seen a lot of these wiring messes. Do not tear out everything. Use the Catch and release. Be sure all is working now. Make a chart or list of eveything in the boat: pumps, depth finders, radios, etc.

Find the fuse panel. Take off a wire and see what doesn't work. Replace it. Make a diagram. Do not take any wires from under the dash until the rest of the wiring has been replaced and everything tested to see if it still works.

Here's a wiring color and length chart from our construciton manaul for a boat we built. Do not pay attention to the lengths.
Wiring Colors and Lengths:

Caution: These colors and lengths may vary sometimes but they are, in general, standard colors for the boating industry.

Livewell Two dark green 16 Gauge 17 to 20 feet in length.

Horn Dark brown, about 5 feet in length

Bilge Pump White with red tracer 14 Gauge
Nav Lites Two pieces of white 16 Gauge each about 20 feet. Bow lite setup goes to top of switch. Rear stern lite goes to bottom of switch. Also need a 4" jumper between the top and bottom of the switch, put ring terminals on each end.

Sender Wires:
Pink Fuel Sender
Gray Tachometer
Lt Brown Temperature
Dk Brown Trim Guage

Wiring Gauges

Tachometer Start with a purple wire about 4-5' so that you can attach it to the farthest gauge.
Speedometer Water tube to pitot. Blue jumper for lite is usually jumped over from the tach ign post.
Hour Meter No sender. + and - only to engine ignition or ing of water temp and minus to water temp minus.

There's probably a lot more that I'll think about later but you can see that it is not a job for the faint of heart but also recall. Each piece of equipment just needs a power wire and a ground wire. So go slow, make diagrams and test each time you replace a wire.

[zooker]

which all works till you get into an old boat then everything is soildered togather and color code means very lil..

zooker

[DJ_Callahan_27]

Carpetman, thanks for the info. I think I will do like you said and write down everything on the boat that needs power and make a check list more less. but rather than traces all those wires and trying to determine whats going where and how the heck they managed to get it in that shape. I think it would be easier (Not cheaper) to run a new wire and lable or color code it myself. I would have to on alot of the items that aren't run right now anyway. After taking it to the lake yesterday I realized a couple of things. I already knew none of the gauges worked on the boat now I know why. Everything under the dash was either cut and taped up out of the way or just wraped in a big ball. I don't understand the point of this but it does make me want to agree with Zooker when he said it means very little when you get into these older boats. Thanks lot for the post.

[zooker]

ya gotta love the if 5 feet of tape is good 500 feet is better attitude...

i pulled 200 feet of unused wiring out of my 16 foot terry boat..


zooker

[Carpetman]

Yikes! I love those back yard Bubbas who think duct tape and bailing wire are the ultimate fixer uppers!

Here's the industry standard for gauges: Post more questions as the job rolls along and buy yourself a good voltmeter for testing!

light brown = temp
brown w/ white stripe trim sender
purple igniton / key on power
pink fuel sender
yellow nuetral safety
tan temperature
gray tach sender
blue usually gauge lights--this wire jumps from gauge to gauge and ties to your light switch.
black with yellow stripe kill switch

Rick The Carpetman

[1FASTLASER]

ALL VEY good info . When rewiring a boat I always do as Carpetman does......lol neat name for it. AND as Zook stated you need to wire as he has described. Troller by itself and everything else on the main battery. A little note if'n ya have room a great idea is to have a small lawnmower batt for the fish finders. It takes up very little room and eliminates interference on the screen from other devices running. Also what I recommend is to not only eliminate alot of wires running to the back and makes it very easy to wire a new device into a boat. Run 2 1/0 wires up to a central point under the dash. Of course the red one will go to a fuse panel or circut panel ( iI prefer a board with breakers insted of fuses). The other (black) will be for ALL grounds to go to. When rewiring remeber all you have to do to hook in a switch is break the red wire and put the switch inline. Very simple and straightforward.

Carpetman put some very valuable info up on the industry standard of wire color codes. ALL should write down and keep in a safe place. 95% of the time will save you a bunch of headaches looking for a wire.

[Carpetman]

Some of the guys at the shop remnded me: Use dielectic grease, a special non-conducting type of grease, costs more but worth it. We coat all the switches with it, and cover all open connections with it. Do not use any scotch locks! Buy some shrink tube and use it on all in line connections. Find the wire connections, end-pieces such as terminals etc, that have the shrink type ends with the sealer/glue built in. They are a lot more money but when you heat and shrink them, the sealer and glue built in to them, does a super job. Use marine tinned wiring. Buy a professional set of wire tools- crimper, stripper and cutter. Make a plan, do a pre-start diagram, think it all through, work one wire at a time, try to avoid any in-line connections, use a lot of breakers or fuses and don't skimp on the cost. If you lose one tournament because you couldn't make the weigh in, you'll lose more $$ than going the extra mile when re-wiring your boat. Rick the Carpetman fka The Stormaker