1994 Stratos 285 Pro XL wiring

[JKC191]

I'm having issues with the wiring on my boat. I just recently bought the boat from my uncle and it has been sitting for a few years. If I run wires straight from the battery to any of my pumps they turn right on but none of them do anything when hooked to the boat wiring. Also my speedometer works perfect and my tilt, fuel, and battery gauges all work as well but my tach doesn't move at all and my water pressure gauge doesn't move and just stays pegged all the way over at 30. I'm tried hooking my multimeter to the ground wires at the batteries but with the batteries all unhooked and then hooked the other wire on my multimeter to each individual power wire with my meter on the continuity setting and went and started flipping switches thinking that one of the switches would have to make it a complete circuit but after trying all the grounds and all the power wires and switches the only one that would make my multimeter alarm was when I'd flip the starboard recirculation switch. Any ideas? Any type of help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. I also found a wiring harness in the dash that has has 5 wires going into it including a ground but there isn't a ground coming out of the harness. I'll try to include a pic if I can figure out how to upload one. Lol20210607_190023.jpg

[CatFan]

Dig around and make sure all of the leads that are supposed to be on the battery are there. Very common for one to get left off and a lot of things don’t work.

[billnorman1]

Dig around and make sure all of the leads that are supposed to be on the battery are there. Very common for one to get left off and a lot of things don’t work.

An excellent place to start. Also, the circ pumps and fill pumps on mine, you need the master switch "on", the "fish" switch on, the appropriate side accessory switch on and the recirc switch on to turn the recirc pumps (LH panel), and the bow switch to the appropriate side in the "manual" or "auto" side selected. Stick to the manual selector until you get them running, don't burn them up.

Don't worry about those wires apparently they have never been used.

[JKC191]

Oh really? So there isn't suppose to be a ground coming out the other side of that harness? I've noticed quite a few wires that have butt connectors that look as though they've never been used. So theoretically I could run one say 4 gauge ground wire from the battery ground and hook the ground of all my pumps and lights and such into it and then have a power wire going to the main switch panel next to the drives seat and then have each of the positive wires from my pumps, lights, etc going to the switch labeled for them and all my electronics should work? From the issue I'm having and with it being a fiberglass boat it kinda seems to me like I lost a ground somewhere. I'm usually really good at figuring out automotive electrical but this boat is a whole different beast. The wiring on the back of the main panel itself doesn't even make sense to me. It looks to me as though it has one main power wire feeding the main power switch and from there that power wire jumps from one switch then to the breaker for that switch and then to the next switch and so on. Does anyone know if that is the way that main switch panel is wired? Also should the red/green navigation light on the front of the boat always have power going to it even with the main power on the switch panel off? Mine does. When I flip the switch for the lights the only light it controls is the back white light. I have this feeling I'm going to end up having to completely tear the interior out of the boat and rewire the entire thing in order to get everything working again. One last thing in this book I've got going here....are the little buttons under the rubber nipples under each switch on the main switch panel circuit breakers? Thanks again for yalls help

[yupitsme]

Yes, daisy chaining the power leads is common in the marine industry. Yes, the li'l button under each switch is indeed a resetable breaker. As BN1 noted you have to have the main power switch on for any of the other switches to work. A suggestion - start with one switch or one pump and get it working don't try to fix it all at once.

At your main power switch. Hook you DVM to the battery negative post then locate the switched side of the main power switch. Make sure you are getting power to the main power switch.

There's two wires going to each pump. One is a ground. Hook your DVM to the positive battery terminal and test both leads going to the pump. One should give you a battery voltage reading once you locate the ground wire. If it doesn't then most likely you are correct and you have a ground problem. Keep focused on that pump until you get it working. The main problem with boat wiring is many mfgs. tie into a ground where it's convenient. Ground leads are not run back to a central point like a breaker box in a house.

Rats like to chew on wires - could be what's at play here.

Water pressure gauge - If the boat set out side there a good chance water in the line and gauge froze rendering the gauge useless - replace it.

[billnorman1]

I'm not saying those wires couldn't be important but those splices look professionally installed, they could be spares. Nothing on your boat works without a negative wire connected to it. One thing for sure, all the grounds should be at zero volts all the time I don't recall any circuits that switch ground on and off.

[JKC191]

Ok so the water pressure gauge actually has a hose going to it for the water pressure. I was thinking it was electronic with a sensor on the motor somewheres. Also this is completely off of the wiring issue but you seem to know your stuff. On the backside of the engine towards the boat about where the lower end comes apart from the center there's a plastic barbed 90 degree nipple there with nothing hooked to it. Is there suppose to be anything hooked to it or is it just left open?

[JKC191]

Ok. That's good to know. I really don't understand why these boats don't have a distribution box with a heavy gauge ground going to it and then the ground off each electronic device would just go to it then there'd only be half as many wires scattered through out the boat.

[Marc Marcantonio]

Should be a black hose that fits over that barb to go to your water pressure gauge. Water gets forced through the nose cone holes, thru the fitting and through the rubber hose up through the motor all the way to the speedometer.

[billnorman1]

Hoses coming from lower units are usually speedometer taps. Boat speedometers are usually a joke, very inaccurate usually on the plus side so you can brag about how fast you went.

[JKC191]

Ok I'm confused now. Is it for the speedometer then or is it for the water pressure gauge?

[CatFan]

Ok I'm confused now. Is it for the speedometer then or is it for the water pressure gauge?

Water pressure gauge is usually a threaded fitting up high. Speedo comes from the LU.

[JKC191]

Up high meaning on the engine itself or still under the engine on the case?

[billnorman1]

There is one hose on engine block area that is open and goes overboard so you can physically see if the water pump is working so it has one end open and it "pees". Somewhere there is a tiny hose that goes to the block that is hooked to a water jacket, and that tells you the output of the water pump. If you run the motor in water or with muffs and take the hose off the gauge, water should come out.
I hope you get familiar with your boat and can go fishing without being overly concerned with it this Summer.
We actually like helping others here.

[TiNuts]

http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=84522&page=6

This may help. I just got a 94 285 xl pro also. I have noticed that a lot of the switches are wonky and will need to be replaced. I’ve also had to run new wiring for graphs as the factory wiring dropped way too much voltage for them to operate.

[JKC191]

I know yall do and I greatly appreciate yall taking the time to help me