Still reporting no issues after re seating smart craft connectors at the helm. No beeps, no RPM surge and no gauge on/off’s. It’s been a great summer and burned a lot of fuel.
All the Best,
Hi Mike,
This sounds very similar to my 8.1 comm issue.
http://www.clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/communication-issues-with-8-1%E2%80%99s.110654/
Check out this thread. Turned out to be a bad power supply connection on the bottom of Smartcraft at the helm. I basically disconnected it for...
Thank you…
after disconnecting and reconnecting wires on bottom of smartcraft it has been a great summer with no issues. I still believe the issue is with +|- pin but haven’t had time to look. Love the ability to go fast again.
They are definitely on a GFI & chained to those outlets, we owned 04 340. I recall it being in a strange place like under the stairs or in a cupboard- sorry that was five S/R’s ago. When you find the GFI it is more likely the GFI needs replacing
Best of luck
Thank you ttmott & PlayDate, I feel like I’m getting close. As you know I reconnected the 10 pin comm to the helm (both motors) and disconnected the two connections on the bottom of Smart Craft, no surprise that gauges didn’t work. Reconnected Smart Craft last night - all gauges worked and so...
Yes, the lap top recorded multiple faults like cam sensors, fuel psi, throttle position ETC. We sent recording to Mercury for detailed analysis and found nothing. Noting most of the faults were do to the starboard motor turning off/on quickly
So sorry to hear!! We have been running perfectly with the comm lines disconnected at each engine. So I’m running no gauges or VV mobile at helm. Today we have reconnected comm wires at engine and disconnected Smart Craft plugs at helm to see what happens. Must have gauges at helm so I’m...
Day 3 of running with both communication lines disconnected and the starboard engine on/off has stopped completely. Yesterday was the first time this year we could get the boat on plane running about 3800RPM. So now what?? I’m thinking about replacing communication lines, upgrading to NMEA2000...
Thank you, we actually swapped ECM from port to starboard and on/off issue stayed on the starboard side.
We are heading out again tonight to check it out.
Have a great weekend
So last night out of pure frustration I disconnected both communication lines on top of each motor that feed info to the helm. I know everyone has said that cannot be the problem but it fixed something. Out of 1 hour of normal boating with one stop for an hour the starboard motor only faulted...
The update: We replaced the entire 8.1 wire harness with a new one from Merc Cruiser. The job took a few hours all the plugs fit and engine started right up with no beeps or RPM drops. Backed out slip and 20 feet away it all started again. Strb motor basically turning off & on quickly, but...
With a small discount I believe the harness will be around $1100. I think I said earlier, we disconnected the data lines from the helm and it made no difference. I sincerely hope your problem is solved.
I will definitely keep this thread up to date.
Thank you
Congratulations!!!
Thanks for the update and please let me know if you continue to be trouble free. I have had no time to work on the boat since my last post. We ordered a complete engine harness from Mercury, it should arrive this week. We have been using the boat at low speeds with the...
Worked on the boat yesterday on the water with our awesome marine Technician. Sad to say with did not find the fix but identified exactly what is happening. We got several engine fail recordings on the laptop and will send those files to Mercury for further evaluation. This issue mostly occurs...
Great to hear…
Don’t know if you saw my earlier post, we moved my PCM’s to another boat with 8.1s and they worked perfectly. Going to take a deep dive into ttmott & PlayDates recommendations this week-end.
I’ll keep you in the loop.
Thanks
Thank you, I will start looking there with a volt meter. Would that also explain the drop in RPM when the fault happens? What about disconnecting smart craft at the helm?
Really appreciate your help!
Hi Captlori,
Hoping you survived your last bout with Covid from last fall. Have you installed cables yet? Our boat went in one week ago, faulted only three times the first day and 30+ times two days later.
This is so incredibly frustrating - still looking for answers - during winter we...
Sejensen737 - I’m glad to hear you located your 8.1 problems and I currently share your frustrations with our 2006 8.1’s. I’m about ready to send my PCM’s to Boats Unlimited and then I stumbled on this well written thread with great information. I started the attached thread a would really...