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My new to me 2001 196 was supposed to be on the water today to recalibrate the Perfect Pass. As normal, I always fire up all boats in the driveway before heading down to the launch to make sure there will be no problems. That turned out to be a good decision today.
For the TLDR crowd, does anyone actually have a real schematic for these boats (I'm not talking about the dash schematic that's floating around, but a full one that includes the engine wiring)? That would have come in real handy today.
Anyway, let me tell you a little story, and maybe this will stick in someones head and save them a pile of grief down the road. I bought a new to me 2001 196. Went to the dealer last fall, heard it run there. I actually had it out on the lake in mid November and we skied behind it (had to be done, new boat and temp in the 50's, and sunny, let's do this). Anyway, the 2001 had the dreaded gauges, so I did a full replacement swap this winter (including oil/temp/fuel/depth/water temp/clock). A fair amount of dash rewiring to clean up the factory wiring. Now, I'm an electrical engineer by trade, and have access to a lab where I do this stuff for a living, so rewiring a dash is not a big deal.
Fast forward to today. I get out the boat for a little spring run up and get the Perfect Pass dialed in (which we noticed was off a significant amount last fall). I hook up the garden hose to my flush tee, punch in the code to the wireless keypad, hit start, and hear the solenoid click, and then nothing. After a little searching, it blew the 20A inline fuse that's attached to the positive battery cable. Of course since I'm at the cabin, no spare fuses. So I run into town, and pick up two packs of 5 fuses (I'm a pessimist).
I plug in a new fuse, and to figure out if I have a short in the dash, I now punch in the code, and turn on the ignition without hitting the starter, and all the gauges light up, the tach comes on, and no blown fuse. I hit the start switch, and poof, blown fuse. Number two if you're tracking.
Crap, pull the steering wheel, pull the dash, and unplug all the gauges and the perfect pass. With the keyless keypad all you need is it plugged in, no gauges required. Enter the code, fuel pump comes on, hit the start switch, and fuse #3 goes up in smoke. What the ****.
Out comes the advanced diagnostic tools. A jump pack and a volt meter. Measure at the battery. 12.90 volts. Measure at the ignition solenoid. 9.80 volts. Well that's odd. That must be a **** of a power draw to sink the voltage that low. No wonder the fuse blew. So I hook the jump pack directly to the starter solenoid trigger wire to rule out the starter. The solenoid clicks, but no start. So then I hook the jump pack to the positive lead and the starter turns over. OK, not a starter/engine problem, so far so good.
So I disconnect some other stuff and try to trigger the solenoid to turn the engine over.. Nothing is working, and after about an hour of screwing around, I finally get it isolated to just the positive battery cable. Now the engine end looks solid. The battery end looks iffy, but that's just the clamp, this is the cast lead type that should be a great connection. But I finally get it down to the connection between the cable and the clamp. Some pulling and twisting, and out pops this green 2GA cable from a cast lead clamp.
So why was the 20A fuse blowing with a bad battery cable clamp? I'm glad you asked. In an electrical system, everything should be laid out as a tree. Once a power source splits, it should never rejoin. Whoever laid out the electrical system in the Nautiques must have missed that day in class though, because when the main battery cable goes bad, the starter tries to draw 200+ amps through the wiring for the dash. The ignition solenoid connects all the 12V system together despite being split previously.
I will be fixing that BTW.
Lessons learned:
1) The simplest solution is often the right one. Battery clamps looked iffy and should have been replaced.
2) Voltmeters are your best friend when trying to diagnose one of these problems.
3) If you have one of these systems and the 20A fuse blows when trying to start, the positive cable is the culprit.
4) Cast lead around copper wire can and does corrode.
Anyway, hope your day went better than mine. I did get the boat running by using a jumper cable from the positive terminal to the starter solenoid. It seemed like a bad idea to put the boat on the water that way though
For the TLDR crowd, does anyone actually have a real schematic for these boats (I'm not talking about the dash schematic that's floating around, but a full one that includes the engine wiring)? That would have come in real handy today.
Anyway, let me tell you a little story, and maybe this will stick in someones head and save them a pile of grief down the road. I bought a new to me 2001 196. Went to the dealer last fall, heard it run there. I actually had it out on the lake in mid November and we skied behind it (had to be done, new boat and temp in the 50's, and sunny, let's do this). Anyway, the 2001 had the dreaded gauges, so I did a full replacement swap this winter (including oil/temp/fuel/depth/water temp/clock). A fair amount of dash rewiring to clean up the factory wiring. Now, I'm an electrical engineer by trade, and have access to a lab where I do this stuff for a living, so rewiring a dash is not a big deal.
Fast forward to today. I get out the boat for a little spring run up and get the Perfect Pass dialed in (which we noticed was off a significant amount last fall). I hook up the garden hose to my flush tee, punch in the code to the wireless keypad, hit start, and hear the solenoid click, and then nothing. After a little searching, it blew the 20A inline fuse that's attached to the positive battery cable. Of course since I'm at the cabin, no spare fuses. So I run into town, and pick up two packs of 5 fuses (I'm a pessimist).
I plug in a new fuse, and to figure out if I have a short in the dash, I now punch in the code, and turn on the ignition without hitting the starter, and all the gauges light up, the tach comes on, and no blown fuse. I hit the start switch, and poof, blown fuse. Number two if you're tracking.
Crap, pull the steering wheel, pull the dash, and unplug all the gauges and the perfect pass. With the keyless keypad all you need is it plugged in, no gauges required. Enter the code, fuel pump comes on, hit the start switch, and fuse #3 goes up in smoke. What the ****.
Out comes the advanced diagnostic tools. A jump pack and a volt meter. Measure at the battery. 12.90 volts. Measure at the ignition solenoid. 9.80 volts. Well that's odd. That must be a **** of a power draw to sink the voltage that low. No wonder the fuse blew. So I hook the jump pack directly to the starter solenoid trigger wire to rule out the starter. The solenoid clicks, but no start. So then I hook the jump pack to the positive lead and the starter turns over. OK, not a starter/engine problem, so far so good.
So I disconnect some other stuff and try to trigger the solenoid to turn the engine over.. Nothing is working, and after about an hour of screwing around, I finally get it isolated to just the positive battery cable. Now the engine end looks solid. The battery end looks iffy, but that's just the clamp, this is the cast lead type that should be a great connection. But I finally get it down to the connection between the cable and the clamp. Some pulling and twisting, and out pops this green 2GA cable from a cast lead clamp.
So why was the 20A fuse blowing with a bad battery cable clamp? I'm glad you asked. In an electrical system, everything should be laid out as a tree. Once a power source splits, it should never rejoin. Whoever laid out the electrical system in the Nautiques must have missed that day in class though, because when the main battery cable goes bad, the starter tries to draw 200+ amps through the wiring for the dash. The ignition solenoid connects all the 12V system together despite being split previously.
I will be fixing that BTW.
Lessons learned:
1) The simplest solution is often the right one. Battery clamps looked iffy and should have been replaced.
2) Voltmeters are your best friend when trying to diagnose one of these problems.
3) If you have one of these systems and the 20A fuse blows when trying to start, the positive cable is the culprit.
4) Cast lead around copper wire can and does corrode.
Anyway, hope your day went better than mine. I did get the boat running by using a jumper cable from the positive terminal to the starter solenoid. It seemed like a bad idea to put the boat on the water that way though
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