1989 Weekender Wiring Nightmare

K

Knight2040

New Member
Apr 24, 2023
8
Boat Info
1989 SeaRay Weekender
Engines
Twin Mercruisers
Hello all, new member here and new to boating as a whole. We have recently purchased a 1989 Weekender 300 and it's in need of some work. The powertrain seems to be just fine, both engines start up, rev, and idle great and the the transmissions seem to be shifting smoothly.

The biggest issue with the boat is the wiring, it looks like there has been multiple hackjobs and poorly done re-wires in the boats 30+ year history. We got the boat at auction so talking with the previous owners was not possible to get any sort of records or history. After pulling out a handful of cut off battery cables, I finally found the ones that were still wired to the starters and plopped in two fresh batteries to get it started. After a little cranking, each engine fired up just fine.

So what I want to focus on first is the electronics, on the dash, with the exception of the Ignition Switches/Breakers, NONE of the other electronics seem to be powered or working, no bilge bumps, no blowers, no horn, no stereo, no lights, ect. I flip the breakers then flip the switches, nothing. Currently I do not have a house battery hooked up until I buy a new one as it was missing from the boat. Is it needed to run these electronics? The batteries only have what appears to be starter cables, should there be more wires going to the battery to power the electronics? I work on cars, but boats are new to me, I'd imagine there should be some sort of heavy gauge wire connected directly to the battery to power a main fuse box or something.

The gauges work(ish). After reconnecting some wires in the cabin, we were able to get shore power to work and power the cabin.

Where should I start for trying to get the rest of the electronics powered?
 
Truthfully, you may be better off just starting fresh if it's that much of a mess. Wiring is (should be, anyways... but who knows after 3 decades) color coded and if you can't find your owner's manual on Sea Ray's website, you can look to other years.

Couple thoughts to pass along....

To power the dash... make sure all battery switches are on. It's quite possible the battery you're missing is the one you need. Gotta get power to the dash before doing anything else.

It's going to be impossible to tell you how things are wired from "here" :) Just take some time and start to map it out.

The better wiring will be "tinned" marine wire. Adhesive lined shrink tubing and tinned connectors, too.

Ideally, there really shouldn't be many wires hooked up direct to a battery - except something like a bilge pump to power the float switch.

You may find that your "dash power" (probably a 10g or 8g wire) comes off one of your battery switches. That way power to the dash is killed when you turn the battery switch off. That's a good thing.

You'll probably want to pull the wires off every gauge and clean the posts. Take pictures and/or make notes first.
 
Power to the helm comes from the red/purple wire that comes from the engine thru the cannon plug.
 
scoflaw said:
Power to the helm comes from the red/purple wire that comes from the engine thru the cannon plug.
Click to expand...
I believe you're referring to the ignition power... but the main power for the helm should be from a larger wire feed.
 
Nope the red purple from the engine goes to the ignition switch which then triggers the purple wire that feeds the gauges the purple wire then returns to the engine to power up several items ECM and alternator. I know his boat is old but they've been doing it like this for a very long time
 
scoflaw said:
Nope the red purple from the engine goes to the ignition switch which then triggers the purple wire that feeds the gauges the purple wire then returns to the engine to power up several items ECM and alternator. I know his boat is old but they've been doing it like this for a very long time
Click to expand...
Yes, I get that. But I think he was also asking about other accessories at the dash. I think you and I were talking about two different things/power supplies (although both at the dash).
 
Lazy Daze said:
Truthfully, you may be better off just starting fresh if it's that much of a mess. Wiring is (should be, anyways... but who knows after 3 decades) color coded and if you can't find your owner's manual on Sea Ray's website, you can look to other years.

Couple thoughts to pass along....

To power the dash... make sure all battery switches are on. It's quite possible the battery you're missing is the one you need. Gotta get power to the dash before doing anything else.

It's going to be impossible to tell you how things are wired from "here" :) Just take some time and start to map it out.

The better wiring will be "tinned" marine wire. Adhesive lined shrink tubing and tinned connectors, too.

Ideally, there really shouldn't be many wires hooked up direct to a battery - except something like a bilge pump to power the float switch.

You may find that your "dash power" (probably a 10g or 8g wire) comes off one of your battery switches. That way power to the dash is killed when you turn the battery switch off. That's a good thing.

You'll probably want to pull the wires off every gauge and clean the posts. Take pictures and/or make notes first.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply, along with the others!

You mean the rotary battery switch that I found submerged in a water in the bilge that has Off-1-2-Both?...Yeah the engines start no matter where that dial is set to, even off....I'm going to assume this should not be the case then haha.

You and Scoflaw have given me great places to start, I'm going to pull the dash panel off completely this week and go in there with a multimeter and start probing. The Alternator seems to be working as after the engines are started I'm looking at 14v-ish while running. As for an ECM, our engines are carbureted, should we have an ECM?

I was under the impression the house battery only was for the items inside the cabin, but then again - if that's how it's supposed to work, I'm not sure what kind of re-wiring has been done. I've found so many remnants of burned up/cut up wiring.

There is a glass fuse panel under the dash panel inside the helm. I first started probing that but wasn't getting any voltage while running. So I tested the fuses for continuity, the fuses passed when the probes were directly on the fuse ends, however when I put the meter on the actual fuse holder/clamps, nothing. So I took the fuses out, wire brushed them, put the fuses back in and bam - I have continuity...Then I took the probes to the bus bar....nothing. So I took the bus bars off and wire brushed them and what do you know - I have continuity. I thought I was on a roll but I wasn't getting continuity from one bas bar to the other and I noticed the break was in fuse holder/clamps themselves at the rivet. Looks like I'm just going to have to junk it and replace it. Would it be fine if I just replaced it with a more modern blade style marine fuse box that are everywhere on Amazon? Attached is a picture of the fuse panel:
 

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scoflaw said:
Nope the red purple from the engine goes to the ignition switch which then triggers the purple wire that feeds the gauges the purple wire then returns to the engine to power up several items ECM and alternator. I know his boat is old but they've been doing it like this for a very long time
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Is the Red/Purple wire a signal wire to activate a relay for the larger gauge wire?
 
The house battery can wired different ways. And it could have been changed over the years. So it's hard to say what you actually have - just keep tracing things and you'll figure it out.

Bus bar... there's your 10g (guessing) "switched" (by the battery switch) power feed for accessories. Or... at least it SHOULD be switched :)
 
Lazy Daze said:
The house battery can wired different ways. And it could have been changed over the years. So it's hard to say what you actually have - just keep tracing things and you'll figure it out.

Bus bar... there's your 10g (guessing) "switched" (by the battery switch) power feed for accessories. Or... at least it SHOULD be switched :)
Click to expand...

So in the picture I attached, those two yellow wires were going up into the dash panel, so I tried to trace them to see where they went....and both yellow wires are not connected anything to the other end...just frayed exposed strands...This might be a big clue as to why there is no dash power. I can't seem to find anything in the manuals about this panel and what these fuses supply power to. Anybody happen to know?
 
Someone here gave me this list sometime ago (sorry, can't remember who) that is pretty consistent with my '92 that was also heavily abused in its prior life. As I understand, it's what Sea Ray used during that time period. If nothing else, use it as a roadmap if you decide to take on a complete rewire.
 

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Knight2040 said:
So in the picture I attached, those two yellow wires were going up into the dash panel, so I tried to trace them to see where they went....and both yellow wires are not connected anything to the other end...just frayed exposed strands...This might be a big clue as to why there is no dash power. I can't seem to find anything in the manuals about this panel and what these fuses supply power to. Anybody happen to know?
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Hard to say. All I can tell from that picture is that they are something a previous owner added. For now, take the two fuses out that are feeding the yellow wires.
 
ALL power to the helm travels thru the r/p wire. There is no wire that connects the battery or battery switch directly to the helm
 
scoflaw said:
ALL power to the helm travels thru the r/p wire. There is no wire that connects the battery or battery switch directly to the helm
Click to expand...

I had a few mins to to a little testing today. I pulled the switch panel out and stuck my meter on various wires and busses and here's what I found. The Port and Starboard ignition/starter breakers both have an orange wire with constant 12V going to it, I could not find any R/P Wiring (yet), so out of curiosity, I grabbed a jumper cable with alligator clamps, jumped from one of the ignition breaker with a constant 12v and just started jumping the rest of the switches. Thankfully it appears that the blowers, horn, lights, and wipers I was able to get going by getting 12V to their respective breakers by jumping. At least I know at this point, if I do end up just rewiring the whole thing, the actual accessories themselves work.

Scoflaw, the R/P wire, where does it connect to on the dash panel? Is there a common busbar it's supposed to connect to or does it go to the ignition switches/breakers? So far the only 12V source getting to the panel are the two orange wires going to each starter breaker.
 
You got me on the starter breaker terminology I have no idea what you're talking about
 
scoflaw said:
ALL power to the helm travels thru the r/p wire. There is no wire that connects the battery or battery switch directly to the helm
Click to expand...
A 16g wire can't supply power to the accessories that are operated from the helm, though. There has to be a larger wire - such as that red one feeding the bus bar at the helm.
 
Knight, yes, you can certainly change over to blade style fuses. the electricity doesn't care if it's a glass fuse or plastic fuse :) Blue Seas is a very good brand.
 
scoflaw said:
You got me on the starter breaker terminology I have no idea what you're talking about
Click to expand...

Basically, the only thing on the dash panel switches that have power, are the two ignition switches and breakers via two orange wires. I took some wire, crimped alligator clips to them, them took 12V from one of the ignition switches and the other end to the other electronics' switches and they power up. So if the original design was that all of the switches are to be powered by a singular source/wire, then something has been rewired and I need to track it down or figure out what they did. Otherwise, like suggested, it might be easier if I just ran 12V to a new fuse box inside the helm, and run new power wires to each bus/breaker.

Gonna do more digging later today, but I can't seem to find a R/P wire anywhere inside the helm.
 
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