Electrical Question

[KTroller]

Curious if anyone has any insights on this. 96 SmokerCraft with 96 45 Honda tiller. Power trim works, power to depth/gps (direct from battery) and power to lighter (direct). All other accessories and ignition are dead (not even a click). Is there a master breaker somewhere that could be blown or other common wiring? The other accessories (lights, bilge, livewell) have always worked regardless of the motor being running or the key being on. any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks!

KT

[Sandmannd]

Do you have a fuse panel on the boat? If so check the fuses. I'm not for sure if there is a main fuse or not, would have to look at my boat. I would assume it's just a fuse if everything else is work, could be a switch too, but then I don't think it would be all the switches at once.

[marine_man]

Take a look at your battery connections. You should have one positive power cable with two cylinders attached to the cable - one in line and one out of line. Open that up. Inside is a inline fuse which it sounds like is probably popped.

marine_man

[KTroller]

Found the double inline fuses and neither was blown. I have also checked the fuses on the motor for start and trim and those are intact as well. I have also checked my livewell pump and it works fine when connected to the battery. The livewell switch also functions properly. (I haven't had a chance to check the circuit breaker for the livewell on the switch panel. They say never be surprised when you encounter the moment when something breaks but this is just odd. I just had my ignition switched replaced last year and with all of these things going out at the same time, I'm stumped. I'll keep trying to logically eliminate causes as I recuperate from my night stranded out on the lake. ;-)

[dkf]

Most every manufacturer/dealer uses crappy crimp connecters and does an overall poor job of wiring in my experience. Almost all the wiring in my Lund has been touched at one point and done right with solder and shrink tube. It only takes a little corrosion to make something not work.

[boatfixer]

The power for the ignition and the power for the acc's usually are not common. The power to the key switch comes through the wire harness for the engine and the power for acc's is a red wire hooked directly to the battery.

For the ignition, are you sure it is in neutral? Do the guages do anything when you turn the key to the run position?

For the rest of it, after verifying good connections on both pos and neg, use a 12 volt test light and start working your way up the line, making sure you have power to the fuse panel.

[marine_man]

Sounds to me like it's time to get a test light or multi meter and start chasing the power, starting at the battery to wherever the next connection is.

Are you sure you battery connections (both positive and negative) are good, clean and tight?

marine_man

[KTroller]

I got out my tester and got all of the accessories working. The culprit...a worn inline fuse holder. The one end of it had some of the rubber insulation folded over the contact. I'm guessing that when I moved my batteries around while working on my ignition problem that I jostled it and so caused that stuff to not work.

The ignition problem remains unsolved. It is an OEM Honda switch which was replaced last year and it is completely sealed. I can test up to the connectors for it but don't really know how I can test it without a diagram that shows which wires are what. Any ideas, I hate to fork over $120+ for a new switch before confirming that it is faulty.

[marine_man]

I would double check the electrical connector that should be somewhere in the pan / lower cowl area that connects to the harness coming from the tiller handle. Verify that that connection is tight.

Is the key switch built into the tiller handle, or is it a seperate key switch in the boat somewhere?

marine_man

[Northlander]

I had a simular problem in my old boat. It turned out to be a fuse that was bad but looked good. I checked everything else and it looked fine. I finally just switched out all fuses and everything was good again.

[KTroller]

The key switch is an OEM Honda switch but it is remote. Last night I located a bad 10 Amp fuse inline just up from the switch. The starter fuse in the motor is 15 Amps. I replaced the 10 amp inline fuse with a 15 Amp fuse just to test and when I turned the key, the 15 Amp fuse on the motor blew. I guess that means a short somewhere between the switch and the motor. Seems hard to fathom since the cabling is all factory wrapped but today I will be checking the lower cowl connections and the entire wire. I think I've ruled out the key switch based on that but I don't want to make an incorrect assumption.