2002 Ski Nautique with speedometer trouble

[Fgroce]

Hi I have a 2002 Ski Nautique that we picked up this past summer, it has the factory Perfect Pass with the new Farnia speedometer replacements. The problem we are having is after 10 to 15 minutes of running the speedometers and the perfect pass speeds are way off. They will be 10 to 15 mph slow. The question is does the replacement speedometers get the speed signal from the perfect pass system or is it a stand alone system. Any ideas on where to start trouble shooting. Thanks

[a.klos]

if you have pilot tubes that are located at the back, they might get clogged. I have same problem smtm and looking to replace mine with gps speedo.

[NautiqueJeff]

Yep, it depends on which replacement system was used.

Since both the speedos and the PP are reading slow, I would bet that there is an issue with the paddlewheel. Try replacing that with a new one from NautiqueParts. I bet that will take care of it.

[ohiowake2]

If the speedometer is different than your perfect pass there is a part that connects to the perfect pass that has a dial you can adjust to get the speedometer match to the perfect pass better. If they are both way off I would agree with what Jeff said above.

[Fgroce]

The speedometer works and then you can see the speed fall off both the speedometer and the displayed speed on the perfect pass. When I pulled the console up I did find two sets of wires that had been cut off. The speedometer wires look like the go towards the perfect pass box on the divider behind the observer seat.

[t.franscioni]

The cut wires are probably from the old stock speedometer guage which used a set of wires from the dash to a box mounted usually on the interior transom, the pitot tubes would also run there hoses to that same transom box where the box would convert the pitot tube pressure into an electrical signal for the gauge and send that signal via the electrical wire that you see cut. As mentioned above and from looking at my 02 with this same set up the Faria speedometer gets its signal from the perfect pass box which gets its signal from the paddle wheel (better set up than the pitot tubes I think). Your pitot tubes were only functional for the stock speedometer and are not utilized with this replacement speedometer from what I can tell looking at my 02 with perfect pass and replaced gauges.

[DW SD]

I replaced the Paddlewheel with a GPS emulator from nautilogic - it outputs a signal that looks like the paddlewheel speed signal, but uses GPS to calculate the boat speed. It took 15 (maybe less) minutes to install it and was about $250. I was having reliability issues with the perfect pass prior. Sometimes, the signal from the paddlewheel would just die (speed then reads @ zero) and PP didn't know what to do, which sucked when time on the water is precious.

I'd highly recommend the nautic logic product. They have one plug and play for Perfect Pass units of that vintage (mine was 2001). This even keeps the temp sensor from the paddlewheel for displaying water temp.

Once I installed that, I didn't look at the speedo, just the speed output on the PP unit. Speedo was redundant.

Another alternative is upgrading with Perfect Passes' GPS unit. But that is a $600 investment between GPS receiver, upgraded brain and new screen, I think.

If you don't care about Perfect Pass reliability, you can install a GPS - based speedometer from Speedhut. I think that is about $250, also.

Good luck.

Doug

[Fgroce]

Thanks for the information, now I have to decide which way to go. By the way has anyone had any issues with bad connections at the perfect pass box, Are you able to replace the harness if needed. Thanks.

[t.franscioni]

Those connectors are pretty loose and chinsy in my opinion at least mine seem that way as they don't plug in with any definitive click or solid feel. They feel loose all the time. Try cleaning the terminals on the connectors to the box and wires can't hurt and may be your issue I don't know.