Weird - No Taps, No Radio, No Heater, No Lights

[jschnip]

Ok, so I'm thinking I need to run down to the lake with a volt meter, but after taking the new boat out this last weekend - fresh out of storage (5 hours on the engine) - some things are painfully askew. The boat is running great, however the taps, the radio, the heater, and the lights don't seem to be powered up. I checked the breaker box below the dash, toggled those on/off switches, and checked the breakers - after that Speedset was working (it wasn't before). I also checked the fuse off the battery (60 amp, I think is for taps) and it looked good as well. I double checked all the battery wires, which I did unhook this winter, and red's are on positive, blacks are on negative - and I didn't see any that I missed.

Any body have any suggestions? I emailed the dealer yesterday, but I haven't heard back from them - my message is probably sitting in their junk mail box. I haven't had a chance to call them, as I have been swamped at work - but if nothing turns up here, I'll be checking with them tomorrow for sure. Thanks

[wannabewakeboarder]

Want me to be the middle man, I'll call 'em for you scnce its Long Distance.

[wannabewakeboarder]

Too late now, there closed...but I could try anyways or tomorrow if you want.

[bk3104]

On the surface it sounds like you missed reconnecting a ground wire somewhere. Had that happen on an old boat I owned. Saw 2 reds, and connected 2 blacks to the battery, found a 3rd black wire hidden behind a panel.

[CP3]

get under the dash and just start pushing every connector together cuz one may be loose. I have had something like that happen before and that fixed it some how

[jschnip]

So far no luck - dealer also suggested that I missed a ground cable - so I took the battery out and searched for a loose cable. Didn't find anything. At their request, I took some pics last night to see if they have any suggestions.

I also looked under the dash and checked every connector I could find, and they all felt solid.

Hopefully they have a next step for me, that doesn't require a 4 hour trip to the shop. We'll see today.

A good tip they gave me (albeit a late one) - was that when you unhook your battery in the fall, to zip tie through the holes so you don't loose a connector. While I don't think thats my problem, it still sounded like a good idea.

[akdoc]

I had something similar happen and it was the main fuse by the batteries. You might want to double check that fuse and maybe even put a new one in just to see what happens.

[flyboy]

I had the same issue last year. It was the fuse off the battery for the TAPS! Made other electrical gremlins appear? Once replaced, all was good with the world.

[jschnip]

So after some phone tag and some camera phone pics (don't want to take the boat to the dealer because they are 4 hours away) the problem has been solved.

It turns out - I had three wires incorrect.

1) There is a Black wire with a red end - which I assumed was positive - nope, its a ground for the radio, go figure - no damage done.

2) A brown thin wire with a black end - this is the positive for something, can't remember what they said - no damage done.

3) A wire loomed red wire - had I pulled back the wire loom, I would have saw this - had on negative, moved to positive no damage done.

Luckily, since I had most of my mistakes connecting to negative (instead of connecting to positive) nothing seems to be affected and all is working again. A big thanks to Joel Rauch at Stateamind Water Sports in St Louis for walking me through it over the phone.

[Michele Sterne]

I had the same problem. In fact, I was just checking these posts to see if anyone new how to fix my inop electrical panel. I am going to try and see if I can follow what you did and hopefully fix the problem before it runs a week of skiing.

[da.bell]

I had three + cables going to the battery. I only connected two while the third controlled the TAPS and panel lights. Let me know if this solves your problem.

[dogbert]

There are also 2 inline fuses right off the ignition switch that can fry and have an effect on your instruments.

[talltigeguy]

1) There is a Black wire with a red end - which I assumed was positive - nope, its a ground for the radio, go figure - no damage done.

Whoever makes a black wire with a red end should probably lose their job.

Glad that you got it figured out. Seems like an easy mistake to make.

[R&T Babich]

You can get surface mount posts for all the positive and negative wires to collect them in one place. Then run one larger red & black wire to the battery to simplify the hook up.

Or:

When I added a second battery I also added a selector switch. I added a wire from the + battery terminals (Main & Aux) of the selector switch to terminal strips (Main & Aux) and connected all the +'s to those. I added another ground wire from the engine block to a terminal strip and connected all the -'s to that. Now the only cables that go the batteries are the 2/00 cables. This also moves the smaller wires away from the corrosive battery terminal area.