in over my head!

[tundra mike]

i am restoring my 1991 predator bass boat. ordered new gauges and im gonna redo the carpet and put in new seats and im rewiring the whole boat! thats where i got in over my head. as far as the devices go (pumps, switches, bilge, etc.) i can handle that. the gauges and the motor is where im totally lost. because of this i have been hesitant to start and i keep puttin it off. any suggestions? any idea where to start? the only wire left in the boat is the trolling motor cabels goin from the front bow to the trolling motor battery box!

[ShawnD]

Did you rip all the wires out? I'm doing the same and more too my boat but I kept the old wires in there location to be able to retrace what goes were.
You've got a lot of homework to do, keep us posted incase this ever happens to someone else. ;)

[javelin90]

If you can do most of it then the motor you can handle. What motor do you have? Go to the outboard forum and post the brand and year you have and ask someone for a wiring diagram or pick up a outboard manual for that specific brand of motor. Is the wiring for the gauges been totally removed? It is not impossible to do. Just need to do your homework and get diagrams for better understanding to help. Even if your in over your head BBC is a great place to get what you need.

[Wildcat Dude]

Wiring is pretty simple. don't let it overwhelm you. Now if you don't like wiring and prefer a premade wiring harness for your lights and accessories, then check out this site http://www.ezacdc.com/. Here's a simple wiring diagram too.

[joeyp]

Its really not that bad of a job at all. Did my boat last summer. genuinedealz.com is a good source for marine wire with really good prices. If you dont have a fuse block, I would advise getting one. It will make the job a lot easier.
Joey

[ShawnD]

Nice diagram,

[Jwengerd]

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by ShawnD &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">Nice diagram, </td></tr></table>
X2

[tundra mike]

What size wire should i use and how much? What is that nav/anchor switch tht the blue wire is coming from? And what size wire should i use to go from the battery hot to the main switch? If i turn the main switch off does that kill power to everything?

[Wildcat Dude]

16 gauge wire should be fine for most everything. Yes, the main switch would cut power to everything that's connected to it. If I was going to have it set up that way, I'd run 10 gauge to that switch with a breaker nearest the battery. But I basically just run a 10ga wire from the HOT of the fuse box to a 20amp breaker then to the battery. Any wires coming off the hot post is either protected by the fuse box or an suitable size breaker from 5 to 20 amps (mostly 5 and 10's). Check out http://www.boatwiringstore.com as that's the sister site to EZACDC. You can also ask electric questions from those guys on http://www.easyacdc.com (their blog) as they are very good.

The NAV wire is normally gray/green and the ANC wire is gray/blue. So you'll want your instruments wired to the NAV lights, cause when you're at anchor, you don't want dash lights to be on draining your battery. Here's a couple of pictures where I showed somebody else how to splice into their NAV wire.



This is the wire that came off a Condura III type switch (basic On/Off/On double pole double throw), This is the gray/green wire.



And here's where that blue wire is spliced into the gray/green wire. If you want the wire codes for marine wiring, you'll find it here http://easyacdc.com/boat-wiring-colors/