Power Problem with Dash

This topic has 7 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 2 months ago by Bass Cat Boats.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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April 13, 2009 at 3:13 am #416245

Chris Moore
Participant

I started having an intermittent issue with the power to the gauges and graph on my dash on my Sabre FTD. When in choppy water, I would loose power to all my gauges and Smart Craft monitor, but not my Touchpanel. The power would flicker on and off. When looking under the dash tonight, I found one of the gauges had the wires (ground) barely in the clip that attaches to the back of the gauge. There are actually 2 wires running to the ground clip on each gauge. On this one gauge, one of the wires was making full contact with the clip and the other had slipped out completely and was hanging loose. I will need to get a new clip and re-crimp the 2 wires to the clip. Obviously I need to get that fixed, but would that be causing me to loose power to the entire dash? I thought I would try to do it myself since is a tiny, tiny issue and I have some vacation days coming up to hit the lake. I didnt want to take it to the shop, just yet… Could that be my problem?

April 13, 2009 at 5:29 am #416246

Bass Cat Boats
Keymaster

It sounds more like an AMP plug on the Mercury Harness. The ground would possibly cause some issues. Though more like low voltage and etc. The most common issue like you mention is often the engine harness.

April 13, 2009 at 1:27 pm #416247

Bass Cat Boats
Keymaster

As best as I can tell, the harness (actually I think there are 2 of them under the dash) appear to all be plugged in. Anything else I can check before taking it in?

April 13, 2009 at 2:23 pm #416248

Bass Cat Boats
Keymaster

Not really, as we dont know how far you want to dig into it? Before you do, what year model is this rig? We have a lot of different years of boats we deal with, and we often are guessing without more information. So get us a year and engine and lets see if we can help more? BCB

April 13, 2009 at 3:25 pm #416249

Chris Moore
Participant

I am going to start by fixing the bad ground clip to the one gague and see what happens then. If that doesnt work, I just want to check the obvious stuff. If not, the great guys at Rockwall will get it fixed up. More than anything, I wanted to make sure it wasnt something obvious before I took it in. 08 Sabre FTD, 08 Mercury 175 Pro XS.

April 13, 2009 at 5:45 pm #416251

oldtimer57
Participant

also, just because a wiring harness connector is plugged in, does not mean it is OK. Disconnect the thing and look at it carefully. The male/female terminals should be clean and bright, not green and gooey. My son and I spent a year trying to find an intermittent check-engine-light problem in his mustang. Turned out to be the engine block wiring harness connector (used so it is easier to pull the motor for service). A little corrosion there causes an intermittent resistance change that confused the computer and triggered the light. This is not that uncommon for connectors that are used in a marine environment. Of course, if you open up the battery compartment and see a large “snowball” on the + or – connector, Id remove and clean that up first. 2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200

April 14, 2009 at 12:58 pm #416253

Bass Cat Boats
Keymaster

Problem solved… I fixed the bad ground clip to the one gague and back to normal… Thanks!

April 14, 2009 at 5:00 pm #416255

Bass Cat Boats
Keymaster

If it comes back, then the Deutsche connections in the harness would be suspect.
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