Dash Install/Upgrade Thread

[pbmang]

The Kit:

The old fuse block:



The old "computer"



Tonight I started pulling all of the old wires out. I have the "computer" totally removed, and have the fuse block down and ready to start removing the wires and putting them into the new fuse block. After getting a majority of the plugs unhooked, I have already been able to see where they are going to connect on the new equiptment. There are a few that I am still not sure about, and I'm not sure what type of connectors I need to get for the wires to hook into the back of the new fuse block

Any ideas? EDIT: THE WIRES DON'T HAVE TO BE WIRED INTO THE NEW FUSE BOX. THERE IS A PLUG AND THEY SIMPLY PLUG IN SO NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THAT PART


The back of the block:






Modified by pbmang at 7:56 AM 9/28/2009


Modified by pbmang at 7:14 AM 8/24/2011

[Fishin' Steeler]

pbmang, thou art a better man than I!

I've seen plates of spaghetti less complicated than that! That's why I hire someone to work on my boat, I guess.

[pbmang]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Fishin’ Steeler &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">pbmang, thou art a better man than I!

I've seen plates of spaghetti less complicated than that! That's why I hire someone to work on my boat, I guess.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Once I got to pulling it apart, it really wasn't THAT bad..LOL

I just finished up for the night. The way it looks right now, there is a harness that connects all of you gauges to the switch panel/ignition (for power I am guessing), then a harness that connects the fuse block to the switch panel and then the wires that run from the fuse panel to each accessory (pumps, lights, ect.). So, to hook everything up, you wire in the fuse block, and then use the adapter harness they send to adapt the old gauge harness to the new switch panel/fuse box. Easy

So, tonight I think I have all of the different harnesses sorted out, and will start to wire the new fuse box in the morning. I think I found a way to hook the wires to the fuse box, but if anyone knows for sure, I am all ears

Here are a few more pictures from this evenings progress:

Hole in the dash from where the old switches were:



What I keep refering to as the "computer:"



And finally, the back side of the old fuse box I am pretty sure half of these wires will not have to be hooked into the new fuse box. I think only the wires that go to each accessory are necessary to rewire. The ones that go to the harness that originally ran to the computer are being replace by the adapter harness. I should be able to confirm by tomorrow.




Modified by pbmang at 7:56 AM 9/28/2009

[Fishin' Steeler]

We're all on the edge of our seats. We know you'll keep us up-to-date. You're on my prayer list!!! And I'm sure you're up to the task.

[Skeet'r89]

"There are a few that I am still not sure about, and I'm not sure what type of connectors I need to get for the wires to hook into the back of the new fuse block

Any ideas?"

It looks like those are just stab connections. Strip about 1/4-3/16 inch of insulation from the wire. Then they must be tinned with solder.
Once wires have cooled just stab them into the connector.
It appears as if each spot is capable of securing two wires.
Good Luck !

[pbmang]

Just about done with it. The new fuse box doesn't need to have any wires run, unless you want to add some accessories to it. I still have two issues I am working on. One, the new dash piece fits weird, so I need to mess with that a bit and two, I cannot find a wire to run my depthfinders to that will cut off when I turn the main power off. On the first box/switch panel, I had it wired so that the switches at the bow and also the depth finders would turn off when the power was turned off.

[pbmang]

Ok, got most all of the wiring done and wanted to put up the steps I take if I had to do it again. Still having some dash issues, and I think I may have been sent the wrong adapter because it is no where close to fitting and looking good. I will call about that in the AM. I also have not found a way to have the depth finders tied to the power switch. I am curious if I hooked something up incorrectly with the power from the batteries, but everything seems to function so I'm not going to mess with it.

Ok, step by step (will add some pics when I can get some!)

1. Unscrew the two nuts that are holding the old touch pad in place.
2. Unhook the wireing harness that connects the touch pad to the "computer"
3. Unhook the harness that goes from the "computer" to the fuse box
4. Unscrew the screws holding the computer in place, and remove it.
5. Snip the zip ties that are keeping all of the wires loomed toghether (it will get a bit messy).
6. By removing all the ties, it will add some slack in the wires, and make it much easier to get to the fuse box. Unscrew the screws holding the fuse box.
7. In the gunnel area behind the fuse box, there will be a large wire harness, a small harness and then also a really small 2 wire harness (red and black wire). On the kit that Skeeter sends, these three harness will all be next to each other (just to give you an idea what to look for). Unplug these harnesses. Also, under the dash, there will be a connection for all of the gauges. Remove that connection as well.
8. Now the fuse box should be able to come out. The wires will all be extremely tangled, so it may be tough to work it out, and you may have to clip one wire (the courtesy light wire that runs under the drivers console).
9. If you look at the two pieces of wiring (one is attached to the fuse box), they will connect using the two different colored connectors. Also, there will be a positive and negative with small battery connector looking terminals on the ends. Those attach to the + and - of the fuse box. Once those are connected, all of the other harnesses will either attach to the ones that the old wiring was attahced to, or to the back of the new dash piece.
10. Coming off of the harness, there are a couple red/black cable combinations. I beileve these are for accesories, and they have constant power run throught them.
11. There is a set of wires (3) that are intended for your trim switch. I didn't have to disconnect my trim, and it still functioned after the new wires were installed, so I didn't mess with them.
12. There is one set of wires (2) a blue and a green (I believe those were the colors) that I don't know what they are for, so I just capped them off.
13. After everything is plugged up, hook your battery back up, plug in the dash and make sure everything works.
14. If so, then it's time to start hacking up your dash! I think Skeeter sent the wrong piece for my boat, so I'm going to call them in the AM. I find it hard to believe I got the right one because the harness itself went in so easy and effortlessly, that the retrofit dash piece would be such a POS

Those are the steps that I would take if I had to do it all over again. I'm trying to remeber everything off the top of my head, so I might have missed something. If nothing else, it should give you a better idea of what is involved!

If you have any questions, just let me know! Also, once I get my dash fully installed, I'll snap a few more pics.

[pbmang]

Ok, I have another update on my situation. I was having a few electrical issues (port livewell fill pump was not working, front navigation light is always on, regardless of if the power is on or not, wanted to wire depth finders/flasher to the main power, so they could be turned off with the main power switch) as well as not having the correct adapter bezel to mount the new dash in (which I just found out, talk about a pain!)

So far I have been able to correct a few issues. With the livewell pump, it turns out that the harness connector was not making solid contact from the new wire coming from the dash to the factory wire installed in the boat. I figured this out by skinning the wire on either side of the connector and then jumping a current between the two and viola! I ended up cutting the wire and making a solid connection, bypassing the connector between the two harnesses.

For the power on/off issue with the depth finders and flasher, I found the wire that goes from the relay connected to the switch panel to the fuse box, and is used to turn everything on. That power wire is only "hot" when the main power on the switch panel is turned on. This is exaclty what I was looking for to hook my depth finders/flash to (so the GPS's won't drain my battery when not in use). So that issue has been solved as well.

I have not had a chance to really mess with the navigation light, as it was the least of my worries, but now it is next on the list.

Also, Skeeter sent me the wrong adapter bezel, so a new one is in the mail. I have spent the last week racking my brain trying to figure out how to make the piece work. No wonder it wouldn't!

Below are a few pictures from tonight.

The "guts" under the front console



The dash switches temporarly installed so I can fish



The ill fitment of the "adapter"





As you can see, I had to do a good bit of hacking to get the dash panel to fit a little.


Modified by pbmang at 7:57 AM 9/28/2009


Modified by pbmang at 7:59 AM 9/28/2009


Modified by pbmang at 7:59 AM 9/28/2009

[flipNfrog]

just curious are you the original owner of the boat?

[pbmang]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by keithbass2609 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just curious are you the original owner of the boat?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nope, I'm the 3rd.

[yazman08]

Got the kit today... Let the FUN BEGIN! I am sure I will be calling brother!

[pbmang]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by yazman08 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Got the kit today... Let the FUN BEGIN! I am sure I will be calling brother! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Anytime!

[pbmang]

Got the bezel in today, so hopefully I can have it all buttoned up tonight or tomorrow!

[SandySliderGirl]

Chris,
You've done a teriffic job with this info.

[simtech]

Do you have any pics of the orginal dash before you starting removing things?

[pbmang]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by simtech &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Do you have any pics of the orginal dash before you starting removing things?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't have any with me on my work computer, but I can take one of the old panel. It was much wider than the new one, and all black. Personally, I liked it better than the new one, but eh...what can you do!

Also, the bezel still doesn't fit I'm going to have to get back on the phone with Skeeter today.

[yazman08]

Alright all, so here is my dash install update. I concur with PBMANG's assessment of this project. It really is not that hard if you pay attention and take you time. So just as he described, I went under the dash and started to snip cable ties and was able to extract the old wiring harness in about 20 minutes. It was a little tangled, but very manageable.

I took the two wiring harness that I received from Skeeter and laid them out on the deck and started to mock it together. There are really 3 main pieces, the switch panel, the fuse box harness and then the harness that plugs into the boat. Now I will say that they did a good job keeping wire colors similar and also each plug is unique and only fits together one way, so honestly, you cannot really crew that part up. I really dont have anything to add to PB's directions other than you will see a black wire and a red wire on the one harness that needs to be connected to the fuse panel, you will see two posts, the ones with all the black wire attached is the ground and is on the top of the fuse panel. The next one down is the main power block.

Here is where I came to my first issue, When connecting the main power to the fuse box it seems to run through some sort of relay, there is one heavy red wire that comes out of the relay that had a loop connector on it that I connected to the fuse box, and then there was another heavy red wire that just had butt connector on it. So it only made sense to hook the loop to the main power pole on the fuse box and leave the butt connector unused. I had it all set this way and all connected and I could not get any power to the main panel.. So I was testing and testing and testing and nothing seemed to work, so as a last ditch effort, I switched the loop connecter and the butt connector heavy wires and bam POWER!! So i wonder, did Skeeter mess up the wiring harness? I have no clue... but I now have power.

So now on to testing each function. Starboard side fill and recirc worked perfect, both bilge pumps perfect, port fill worked perfect, Trim gauge works, however now the gremlins... port recirc doesnt work, verified the pump is good, I am not getting any power back to that pump. Neither fuel gauge works (1 worked prior to swap), the curtosey lights dont work (rod locker lights ect), but the dash lights do work when I turn on the nav lights (weird). Nav and Anchor lights work. Honestly, I am wondering if the wiring harness is either 1. the right one 2. if there wasnt another mistake possibly. It is so hard to tell.

As far the cutouts and the install of the actual panel, I would say as long as you have the right tools and take your time this is the easiest part. I used a air recip saw and cut it out.

I will post some pics of the after, I didnt really take any in progress pics as I was so involved. But I would be more than willing to talk someone through it. I am debating what my next step is now.

I have no curtosey lights, which is annoying and isnt the end of the world. As far as the recirc pumps, I wired both the starboard and the port to the same switch. This will work for now i guess. I may now take it to the dealer and let them work out the last few bugs. I really think that it has to do with the harness itself or some issue in the boat harness, which i doubt because everything worked prior to the switch out.
So we will see...

If I could tell you guys anything, I dont think it is worth 700+ dollars in labor to have a dealer do what PB and i have done. If anything, i have done 95% of the work and I would pay the dealer a few bucks to work out the bugs.

PB I will call you to see if you have any thoughts. I know your probably not feeling very well this morning.

[SandySliderGirl]

Great Info, keep it coming.
There are surely others out there with the same problem or will have it in the future.

[pbmang]

Haha...just got out of bed and had a sandwich and now I'm ready to rock and roll some more (my bachelor party last night)

I had the same issue with some of my stuff, and what I did was skin a small bit of insulation off the wire (starbord fill for me) before the harness but after the switch panel. I then used a test light to turn the pump "on" with the dash and see if the light lit up. It did, so I knew that wasn't the problem. Then I skinned the wire after the harness and repeated the process. Low and behold, I wasn't getting power, so the connection from the harness was the issue. I simply made a jumper wire and bypassed the harness, and now the fill pump works.

I had a few issues like this. Also, the courtesy lights are a pumple (I think) wire. You might want to see if you can do this with the courtesy lights and try and track down the problem.


Give me a shout and we'll see if we can't get it worked out. Also, when you get a chance, I'd like to see a picture of the adapter they sent you to fit in your console. I still don't have the right one

[yazman08]

PB, IM SENT