Dash Gauges Wiring and needles Fix?


S

SabrToothSqrl

Well-known member
Whoever wired these gauges was blind and not a boater. Labels like 'left tach' are concerning enough, but the twisted wires, overdose of electrical tape, and house wiring nuts is... something. So I'm going to fix this up, since some of the lights are acting up.

Has anyone taken a Livorsi gauge apart? I'd like to repaint the needles if I can. I'm told Livorisi will do this for $$$, and they will just fade again, so I'd rather just do it myself.

Took the opportunity to level all the gauges as well. Cleaned up all the surfaces.

Say HI to Hudson (Hudson Motor Company). He's our new little Hornet!

I'll work on the wiring later this week or so.

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Never tried to take any gauges apart, but in most cases what ever goes together can be taken apart

This guy will make sure you do it right
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Hudson is a supervisor in training :)
I do wish he would have been around for whatever genius did this rats nest of wiring. I think I figured out what they did. As little as they could. All the old wiring was still in place, hacked up and locked in with 400 zip ties!
I think I just took 5lbs out of boat.
I'm adding a connector to the depth finder so it can be removed from the dash, as all other gauges have connectors already.

There is only 1 voltage gauge - I don't recall if it was attached to Port or Strb. I think it was Port.

My Port is the 'house' battery, but I'm thinking Starboard is more critical, as it's the starting battery.
It seems stupid to have only 1 gauge. Also, I don't think the signal wire was attached, as it would only be attached to 12v on anyway.
The only thing it would tell you anyway is if your alternator isn't working. The engine either starts... or it doesn't. at that point the gauge doesn't mean jack.

I do find it odd there are wires from the boat on the port and strb sides, with port and strb key wires. I need a new 9v in my multimeter to test a few things, but I labeled from what was removed. The wiring job was just... a fluster cluck. No wonder my temps / tachs never lined up right?!

So, either these go no where, or power is supplied from both sides? Multi-meter will tell me soon enough.

So, anyway, should I wire the single Voltmeter to Port or Strb?
I have bluetooth gizmos on both batteries that give me real time voltage and historical readings.



thinking through this just now. It's more critical that the strb alternator works, otherwise I'd be on the house battery all day and may not be able to kick it over. So Strb it is! If port dies, from dead alternator or radio all day, no biggy if Strb is good. But if strb alt dies - and no one knows - and port battery dies from being used all day - you're gonna have a bad time.


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AllDodge said:
Could put a SPDT switch on the voltmeter to read either. Maybe have one side momentary so when released it flips back to STBD
Click to expand...
that sir. is some MacGyver level shit right there. Have a button you press/hold to read the other. defaults back to strb when you let go.
I seriously applaud the idea. if I didn't have bluetooth monitors on the batteries, that would be a solid way to go. now if only Formula simply put 2 gauges on the dash lol.

Grabbed a new 9v and tested out the dash.
I have Port and Strb 12V from each side. Both have power when key is in run. (and off = off).
I find it odd there are 2 circuits for each engine going to the dash. Load sharing? Redundancy?

I can't imagine these gauges pull that much power, given their size 18 or so wiring.
I'm looking over the wiring diagrams now.
 
The Red/Purple from each motor will supply full time power to each key switch. The helm mounted voltmeter should be after the key on a purple wire
 
AllDodge said:
The Red/Purple from each motor will supply full time power to each key switch. The helm mounted voltmeter should be after the key on a purple wire
Click to expand...
thanks. there is a purple/black which is port and purple which is strb. the confusion is.. there are 4. total. and BOTH have power when key is in run (each respective key). I thought for sure one side would not have power, that it ran from one side to another, but both have power?!

same color scheme, and I'm 90% sure they are tied together behind the dash factory. but why would they use double the wiring?


thoughts? thanks!
 
Agree don't understand why 2 purple wires from each motor, would need to trace to try and determine

Maybe
Normal - after key, purple goes thru kill switch then to gauges, maybe one goes thru kill and the other does not
 
AllDodge said:
Agree don't understand why 2 purple wires from each motor, would need to trace to try and determine

Maybe
Normal - after key, purple goes thru kill switch then to gauges, maybe one goes thru kill and the other does not
Click to expand...
Ohh snap. I was just thinking about the kill switches, but not in this context.
I will remove them and retest w/the multimeter.
And check into the kill switch wiring diagrams.

thanks!!!
 
well. just tested. When you pull the kill switch, both "inputs" (from 1 engine) die. 0v. So... it was a good idea. but no dice.
if there's power from both 'sides' it's just like... WHY?! and why here?
Multiple grounds I get.
But there's only a single 12v for the lights.
Why would there be 2 sets of engine wires?!

I'm not in a huge hurry to slap this back together, but I am certainly confused at this point. The rest of the wires are labeled (by me).
I have some parts on order as well.

Going by the wiring colors and connections, I'm sure they connected behind the dash, but why 'power the dash' then go BACK to the boat?!
And why would it have power on that side too?! Unless something is perfectly shorted on both sides and or changed after the fact.
At this point the plan is to tie them together, which seems is how it was.
 
I see some wiring for Captain's Call (I do not have that).
I wonder if that's part of this hot mess?
Also, Captain's Call only works above 3,000 RPM?
 
Puzzling
Never had Captains call so unable to say, I had Corsa. But doesn't it work off vacuum, maybe? If so that might be the reason
 
Thoughts on bringing all the gauge wiring together with 3 of these?

I'd have 3 'power' blocks
1. port power
2. starboard power
3. lights
4. Most likely use existing ground block. Why put in a new?

then I could run all the gauges to these, make it nice and neat. Only thing I don't like is the one side isn't ring terminals, but honestly I think it would hold just fine for the next 15 years... beats the 'twist this wire into a ring terminal and wrap it with electrical tape'?

 
Don't see a reason for new if existing is in good shape. What you get off the net might not be same quality as original (might rust)

Can use different ground blocks but I would bond them together
 
When ever there is a connection so is a place that can corrode, even more in salt water. Might think about soldering and heat shrink tubing or solder splices. Naval weapon systems used solder splices.
 
Well, after mulling this over a while, I realized the gauges pull maybe 1 amp for ALL of them. so, I'm not doing 4 distroblocks because, why? if you really want to install 44 screws and ring terminals... that's not my idea of fun and doesn't really seem to add value.

So, instead, 4 x 4 pin connectors will carry power from the boat, to the dash. Now, you can pull 4 connectors and just remove the dash if you want.

Cleaned up the wiring on the kitchen table. My fingers hurt.

"image is too large" ugh. i thought some forums could auto resize?
I used a free resizer online.
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The new connectors are 2x the quality of the ones I used on the trim switches. I wish I knew of these before. I looked at redoing the trim and it's just way to much work for something that's solid already.

Dash side is done. Just need to put matching on the boat, and waiting on some other misc parts before final reassembly.

I am really liking these connectors. I think they'd even fit the Livoris gauges directly, but haven't tested.

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