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88 120 Johnson Looper NO ALARMS at all ever

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"Hi all,
I purchased a 1988 1

"Hi all,
I purchased a 1988 18.5 foot fishing boat with a 120 HP Johnson Loop Charged outboard on it. We knew for a fact that it ran well as we had been in the boat several times the previous summer.

Anyway, now that it is ours, we took it out for it's first test drive of the year last Saturday. Everything ran great and we are very happy with the smoothness and performance of the engine. One thing that bugs me though...NO ALARMS! Anywhere, anytime, anyplace! The shifter is an OMC shifter, built into the side rail padding, with the keyswitch (complete with push button choke) on the dashboard. We have a tach, speedo, gas and tilt gauge, and nothing else. No lights, no horns, no sirens, nothing.

I looked in and around the shifter, and in and around and under and in the back of the dashboard...no buzzers/horns/etc. anywhwere.

Is this normal for some boats to not have the buzzers/warning horns installed?

It is a 1988 SeaSwirl Sierra II open bow.

Like I said, it runs great, but the lack of any warning devices kinds of scares me...

Randy"
 
"If you have the regular OMC w

"If you have the regular OMC white control box, the one with a single shift/throttle lever and a warm up lever, the horn would be contained within that control box.

If your control is a console mount, there is a TAN wire leading from the wiring harness that would connect to the warning horn. In this case, the horn is usually tie strapped to something under that console.

To test the horn (engine not running), have the key in the ON position. Find the TAN wire leading to the heat sensors leading out of the cylinder heads. Ground that TAN wire to complete the circuit..... the horn should sound.

If it does not, find out why as that's the only warning you'll receive should anything go wrong.

http://stores.ebay.com/Evinrude-Johnson-Outboard-Parts-etc?refid=store"
 
"Thanks Joe, I will look for t

"Thanks Joe, I will look for that tan wire tonight and ground it and see if I hear anything. It is not a console shifter, nor is the side-type shifter with a warm up lever. It looks like the type of shifter found on every I/O boat out there...except that this boat has an outboard.
Thanks! I'll post what I find.
Randy"
 
"Hi Joe,
I found the horn und

"Hi Joe,
I found the horn underneath the dashboard. It had two wires connected to it and when the key is on it had power on both sides. I turned the key to ON and went back to the outboard and found the tan wire coming out of the heat sensor. (One on each head of course). I unplugged it and grounded it and the horn started blasting away!
So, it appears that minimally, the overheat warning works. I'm kind of concerned that it doesn't beep to give me an okey-dokey when the key is first turned on.
While I was under the dashboard, I found another possibly related issue. It has a "man overboard" switch that has been bypassed. On the back of the switch, there are the two main wires , as well as a third wire. The two main wires have been spliced together and the 3rd wire is just cut and taped off going nowhere. I'm wondering if perhaps this ties into the warning buzzer circuitry?

Now that I have verified that the overheat sensor works, should everything else work for that buzzer? Should I just not worry about the self-test when the key is first turned on?

Thanks Joe!

Randy"
 
"Randy... You're not verif

"Randy... You're not verifying that the heat sensor works, you're simply verifying that the horn works when the TAN wire is grounded. That is, in theory, the horn should sound if the engine overheats.

The horn should be a 3 terminal horn, one terminal being the built in black wire that leads to a good ground, and two push on terminals. Using a volt meter with the black lead going to ground, and the key in the ON position, voltage would register at the PURPLE wire terminal and also at the TAN wire terminal of the horn... this is normal.

NOTE: The TAN wire must be connected to the push on terminal closest to the build in black ground wire, otherwise weird things will take place.

If you have the three wire type horn, and it doesn't beep when you turn the key on, either that black built in ground wire is not grounded or the horn is faulty.

You need the self test. Without it, you have no idea if the horn is operational or not when the engine is started.

The Man Overboard switch is actually called a Kill Switch.

The basic wiring is a Black/Yellow wire leading from the Black/Yellow terminal of the ignition switch to one side of that Kill Switch. The other side of the Kill Switch would lead to a good ground.

Right at the moment, my mind will not grasp a 3rd wire being part of that Kill Switch.... mental block no doubt. I'll let someone else grab that topic BUT..... the Kill Switch has nothing to do with the horn warning system."
 
"Thanks again Joe!
I'll g

"Thanks again Joe!
I'll go out and take a closer look at the warning horn and see how many terminals. I don't recall it having 3, but I wasn't looking.
Good info! I'll keep you posted! Thanks again!
Randy"
 
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