Speedometer Pickup

[brew]

Where is the speedometer pickup located on a 2007 220 and is it a paddle wheel or tube pickup? My boat has been stuck in the water for a month due to trailer problems and the speedometer has started having problems. The last couple of weeks it hasn't worked when we've started out and after running for a few minutes it has kicked in. Last night it didn't work at all. I'm thinking the pickup may be clogged since it has been sitting in the water, but I'm not sure where to look.

I can't get the boat out of the water for another couple of weeks, so I'm trying to figure out some in water fix. I discovered last night it's a little difficult to wakeboard without a speedometer, especially since I haven't had the boat long enough to track the RPM at different speeds.

[brew]

I found the speedometer pickup and it uses a paddle wheel style pickup. The wheel spins freely, so that's not the problem. I checked the connection at the pickup and it appeared fine. I also checked the connection where that line comes into the dashboard and it seemed fine.

Any other ideas what's causing the problem? The perfect pass, digital readout, and regular speedometer are all not working currently. Any ideas would be appreciated, since I'm out of luck on getting it into a shop any time soon.

[ask4mikie]

Watch the gauges when you turn on the ignition. Check that the needles go to zero. If they do not, you are probably not getting power to them.

Take out the screws that hold the dash pod. Lift it up and look at the wires on the back of the gauges. Purple is 12 volts from the ignition switch. Black is ground. Blue is lighting.

Try wiggling the wires to see if any of them are loose. I think this is a possibility since the gauges start working after a few minutes.

You can also measure from a purple wire to a black wire with a voltmeter. With the ignition on, you should read 12 volts.

Good Luck

[brew]

The needle guage goes to zero and the perfect pass and digital readout both read 0.0. A couple of weeks ago it would register just like that and then it would start registering after running for a few minutes. Now it's not registering after running and is just registering 0.0 on everything.

[brew]

One other thing, the speedometer pickup is located right beside the drain plug on the boat. The bilge doesn't pump all the water out of the bottom of the boat, so that area has been sitting with water covering it for 5 weeks now. Could the standing water over the pickup be causing some sort of problem, so that after running it for a few minutes and the water shifting to the back of the boat it starts registering again.

[ask4mikie]

OK, it sounds like the gauges have power. I would still check for loose wires on the back of the speedo.

Then I would try to see if you're getting a signal from the paddlewheel to the gauge. Put the leads of a voltmeter on the SIG terminal and the Ground terminal on the back of the speedo. Then spin the paddlewheel and watch the voltmeter. You may need a helper to spin the wheel while you watch the voltmeter.

If nothing happens on the voltmeter, then the paddlewheel is probably not working. If there is a response, then the problem is probably in the gauge itself.


Mike

[ask4mikie]

I just found an excellent write-up for testing a paddlewheel. Search for this post in Maintenance & Technical Questions:

Testing a paddle wheel speed sensor on Perfect Pass


Good Luck!

Mike