Rewiring Confusion

[RevTrav]

So I’m starting to rewire my ‘86 Winner. The original wiring was harness-style (?) with groups of wires attached to periodic plugs. It looks like the back side of a car stereo. Then, over the years, stuff was added in hodgepodge like somebody was wiring their shed while drunk. I found a four ground wires attached by a screw on wire nut suspended in the air. I’ve been clipping out the obvious detritus. Noting works except the ignition and trolling motor. I don’t mind rewiring everything but I can’t figure out where this stuff was wired to hit. The wires go from bilge to console and up to bow and seem separate from the ignition and anything hot. I can’t see inside the channel where it runs but ignition seems to be an enclosed cable. How is that supposed to work? Where were the automatic tilt switches attached? Anyone have any ideas?

[Jonestrollingmotor]

Don't know on that particular boat, but I can tell you generally how the boats are wired. First, the trolling motor is on a separate circuit and has nothing to do with anything under the dash. The Key is on a wiring harness coming from the outboard. Usually the trim wires will be in that harness also -- but that depends on age (is the trim part of the outboard or a stand alone unit inside the bilge area. Are the solenoids/relays under the cowl or in the bilge area) and you didn't give us year models. Assuming the trim relays/solenoids are under the cowl, the trim wires will be in the main harness going to the ignition switch. Usually there is a pigtails in this harness that split off to the tach, gas gauge, and back lights for the gauges since these work off the key.
There is also a main power and ground wire, in older boats was 10ga with a 30A fuse - newer boats is 8ga with a 40A fuse, that will go either to a fuse block or a power accessory switch. If there is no fuse block, then switches may be individually fused or breakered with the fuse/breaker under / over the switch. These switches will feed the items like aerators, bilge, horn, nav lights. The breakers/fuses are usually "daisy chained" between the power switch and the appliance switch.
The grounds will connect to a ground buss and in the case of pumps or anything located in the bilge area, a ground buss bar is used to run all the grounds to, however they can also be connected straight to the ground side of the battery.
Hope this helps
John

[RevTrav]

Thanks John,

It’s a ‘90 Evinrude 90. There’s nothing in the bilge as far as relays or solenoids, so it must all be under the cowling. There’s no fuse box or bus, which is what I’d like to transition it to. There appear to be hot wires running into the channel and they have to connect somewhere, because it is not directly to the battery or anything in the bilge. I’m taking from this is that the hot wires must somehow join into the covered wire/wires that come off the throttle and go into the engine? The tilt is built into the motor and the way I use it now is by two buttons on the engine. There are three wires going to the old tilt switches, one near the bow and the other near the stern. I think they are red, blue and green. I tried pulling the wires off the old swituches and touching them directly together to actuate it but there was nothing. Part of the problem is that all of the wire, aside from the stuff running back to the motor, is zipped together a zillion times. If I pull something, I have to pull everything. Also, if I’m going to find where the hots pig in to the system, do I have to disconnect the wires from the throttle to the engine and pull it out of the channel to find them?

[billnorman1]

If you have a red, green and blue you probably have a trim/tilt system. The red should be hot. If I understand you, you're rewiring the whole boat. That should be interesting work.

[RevTrav]

Yes, I found the red, green, blue, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. Both sides of the RGB (there was a non working switch now and stern) run into a channel and come out the other side. The throttle assembly has a sleeved set of wires that go into the same channel and come out and go into the motor. I’m trying to figure out where these wires tie into the tilt assembly, ideally without unnecessarily disconnecting the throttle from the engine and pulling one of the only things that work out of the channel. I could just pull a separate hot/ground off of the battery and run it to the console to a bus. This would be easy with everything but the tilt, which has to be tied in somewhere else. I’m just trying to figure out where and how this stuff originally tied in.

[Jonestrollingmotor]

Follow the wires to the outboard. There will be a green/white and a blue/white that energizes the relays. A solid blue and solid green go straight to the trim motor. These all have bullet connections.