"PRELUDE: I have a boat that
"PRELUDE: I have a boat that none of the gages work. The purple wire seems to be the wire that gives each gage electricity for the lights and I guess, to power the senders? My problem is that the Purple Wire has a dead short. I am assuming that this may be the problem for the purple wire to spark and make everything go dead when I jumped a hot lead to it.
My 1989 Spectrum Series 1950 boat runs great except the gages and the gage lights do not work. Being anal about having gages that work ( Flying To Long!) made me start working trying to figure this one out. It should be simple, or so I thought! The fuel, oil, tach and water temp gages have three poles and it is like "Bakelite" (sp). They are shaped in a "V", to match the positions on the gages Of course the voltage gage just has just two wires the purple and ground. I checked the "Volt" gage, in case someone had placed the "V" backwards, automatically grounding the "hot" purple wire. I double checked to make sure the Purple line wasn't going to a dead short. There are two common wires, a purple one and the black, the ground and then the different color wires from the senders.
The starter switch is only a three pole type, (Red) battery, (Yellow with cross hatches) ignition and a "purple wire". The switch allows the purple and yellow with stripes wire to become "hot" when in the "run" setup. I used a jumper wire (positive) to jump it to the purple wire and it was a direct ground, and almost welded it together. I followed the bad purple wire back as I far as I could but I still couldn't find anything indicating a short. The bad (purple)wire was not wired into the under dash fuse bock, all of the fuses were all okay.
The wiring harness runs along the starboard side and has very few places that I could pull the wires apart enough to find the purple wires path to the engine. I wasn't able to find the same gage purple wire anywhere inside. At the engine the wires come out of the loom and I was able to find the purple wire. The wire disappeared again inside a closed harness. I cut the insulation away enough to be able to test the wire. After hooking the wires back up to the ignition switch and turned it to the "ON" position the purple wire in the engine compartment did show that it was hot. It was controlled by the ignition. I double checked the wire color coming out of each of the sensors and using a continuity tester it confirmed that the wires were in the proper connector under the dash.
Here is where I am now. If my memory is correct, voltage is sent to the senders (water, oil and gas,)and then the results are send back to the gage registering the water temp and oil pressure by the senders resistance? This just gave me a thought, should I have taken the senders out one at a time to see if there is one of the senders has fried itself and is grounding the sender out, thus making the purple wires under the dash shorting out?? This is pure crazy, but I have rewired several late model autos that had been in an electrical fires and the vehicles started and ran like nothing had happened, well, except for the sickening smell inside the car! This one has my brain cells shorted out. What the heck am I missing?
When I called my boat dealer he said that there is a meter now that will help track shorts. Has anyone used this type of meter before? I have drawn up a schematic if that would help. Its to big for uploading in here, but i could sure send it to you if it would help!!
Thanks in advance
Steve Hampton"
"PRELUDE: I have a boat that none of the gages work. The purple wire seems to be the wire that gives each gage electricity for the lights and I guess, to power the senders? My problem is that the Purple Wire has a dead short. I am assuming that this may be the problem for the purple wire to spark and make everything go dead when I jumped a hot lead to it.
My 1989 Spectrum Series 1950 boat runs great except the gages and the gage lights do not work. Being anal about having gages that work ( Flying To Long!) made me start working trying to figure this one out. It should be simple, or so I thought! The fuel, oil, tach and water temp gages have three poles and it is like "Bakelite" (sp). They are shaped in a "V", to match the positions on the gages Of course the voltage gage just has just two wires the purple and ground. I checked the "Volt" gage, in case someone had placed the "V" backwards, automatically grounding the "hot" purple wire. I double checked to make sure the Purple line wasn't going to a dead short. There are two common wires, a purple one and the black, the ground and then the different color wires from the senders.
The starter switch is only a three pole type, (Red) battery, (Yellow with cross hatches) ignition and a "purple wire". The switch allows the purple and yellow with stripes wire to become "hot" when in the "run" setup. I used a jumper wire (positive) to jump it to the purple wire and it was a direct ground, and almost welded it together. I followed the bad purple wire back as I far as I could but I still couldn't find anything indicating a short. The bad (purple)wire was not wired into the under dash fuse bock, all of the fuses were all okay.
The wiring harness runs along the starboard side and has very few places that I could pull the wires apart enough to find the purple wires path to the engine. I wasn't able to find the same gage purple wire anywhere inside. At the engine the wires come out of the loom and I was able to find the purple wire. The wire disappeared again inside a closed harness. I cut the insulation away enough to be able to test the wire. After hooking the wires back up to the ignition switch and turned it to the "ON" position the purple wire in the engine compartment did show that it was hot. It was controlled by the ignition. I double checked the wire color coming out of each of the sensors and using a continuity tester it confirmed that the wires were in the proper connector under the dash.
Here is where I am now. If my memory is correct, voltage is sent to the senders (water, oil and gas,)and then the results are send back to the gage registering the water temp and oil pressure by the senders resistance? This just gave me a thought, should I have taken the senders out one at a time to see if there is one of the senders has fried itself and is grounding the sender out, thus making the purple wires under the dash shorting out?? This is pure crazy, but I have rewired several late model autos that had been in an electrical fires and the vehicles started and ran like nothing had happened, well, except for the sickening smell inside the car! This one has my brain cells shorted out. What the heck am I missing?
When I called my boat dealer he said that there is a meter now that will help track shorts. Has anyone used this type of meter before? I have drawn up a schematic if that would help. Its to big for uploading in here, but i could sure send it to you if it would help!!
Thanks in advance
Steve Hampton"