None of my gauges work.

[Fishaholic]

I'm starting with the fuel gauge because I need it the most. All the gauge lights work.
I checked the gauge operation with a jumper wire and it seems to work fine. I replaced the tank sender and that did not fix it. I traced the sender ground wire from the sender flange to a cluster of black or dark wires that was conected to my + pos. side on the cranking battery. Now I must assume that I somehow got the wrong wires on the wrong battery terminal.
I'm lost. Any idea how many wires the boat uses for pumps, lights, gauges,etc..... and which terminal they should be on? There is a wire with a fuse or somthing on the ground side. That don't seem right either.
1988 Blazer VL120 16ft.

Maybe I should just cut a big hole in the top of the tank and I can use my cigarette lighter to look down in there and see how much gas I have.

HELP!!! S.O.S.!!!!

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[RedBoat]

The wire with the fuse goes to the positive terminal not neg. If you boat has a fuse panel under the dash you should only have 1 pos and 1 neg to the fuse block. Quickly disconnect the wire from the wire from the tank flange to the positive side of the battery or you wont need a lighter to check fuel level you will know how much fuel you have by the sound of the boom, the wire from the sender flange goes to the neg post of the battery. You now have positive current to your gas tank and thats not good with fuel and fuel vapors. I can only hope you did not swap the motor battery cables or you will also be replacing a regulator/rectifier they dont like reverse polarity even for a second ! Hope this helps.

[Fishaholic]

Everything helps RedBoat. As soon as I saw that my aluminum fuel tank was positively charged I removed the wire like it was fear factor or somethin. I just can't figure out how everything else can be working if there are 5 ground wires attached to the +pos. term (the tank ground was 1 of 5 wires bundled into one connection). Maybe because the little fuse block was wrong also. I know that when I took the 5 grounds off of the pos+ term. then my bildge stoped. This is making my head hurt.

I don't want to go boom, I just to know how much gas I have left.

[Fishaholic]

BTW, I know that my motor is wired right.............. I think. Hell it still works. Johnson V4 120VRO Just replaced the Rectifier and romoved the wing nuts. But the gauges quit long before any of that. A new boat would fix all this but my banker would laugh me out of town.

[rlj]

Someone posted this here a while ago and I saved it. Maybe this will help:

Boating Industry of America Wire Colors


Here are the standard wire colors used in the boating industry since the late 70s. When re-powering a boat with a newer motor this is a handy reference. Most boats use these standards but always double check in case changes have been made! BIA

Wire Color--------------------Where it is used

Black---------------------------------All Grounds
Black with Yellow stripe---------Magneto/short to Kill
Gray----------------------------------Tachometer signal
Yellow with Black stripe---------Choke
Red----------------------------------Unprotected(12V+)from battery
Red with Purple stripe-----------Protected(+12V)from battery
Purple-----------------------------(+12V)from ignition switch
Tan------------------------------Overheat sensor to warning horn
Pink-------------------------------Sending unit to fuel guage
Yellow with Red stripe----Ignition switch to starter solenoid
Yellow-----------------------------charging stator to rectifier
Lt.Blue with White stripe--------Trim up
Green with White stripe-----------Trim down

I think that dark blue is always supposed to be lights or switched plus, but that doesn't show in the list.
You should have some sort of a breaker panel coming from the battery plus (maybe then through switches to the individual instruments etc.
Hope this helps.
Rich

[Fishaholic]

I owe you one. That is exactly what I needed. Thanks Rich. I will save it and share it with the next gut that is about to blow somthing up.

[SEAHORSE]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rlj &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Someone posted this here a while ago and I saved it. Maybe this will help:


Wire Color--------------------Where it is used


Yellow with Black stripe---------Choke
</TD></TR></TABLE>


choke should be purple with a white stripe.

[Fishaholic]

Someone left the "Seahorse program" running again. Its answering questions before we can ask them. YOU GUYS RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fishaholic]

Thanks everybody. My Fuel Gauge and my Ammeter both started working as soon as I put the ground wires on the neg- battery terminal and the pos+ wire back on the pos+ terminal. DUH!!!!!!!
Now I will try to fix my tachometer. I think that the problem there is just a bad gauge. Thanks again for all the help.