How to identify stern light wiring on 2003 240 Sundeck

Janbur

New Member
Aug 13, 2018
6
Boat Info
2003 240 Sundeck
Engines
Mercruiser MX 6.2L MPI Bravo III MCM
Hi there everyone,

I recently acquired the perfect boat for my family, but have learned that it is not quite perfect (of course). Our model has the watersports tower option that has a stern light mounted on top. I discovered that the light does not work, so I traced the wires and found them disconnected in the engine compartment. I also checked the pole light receptacle and found that its wires were disconnected as well. I looked around for some male bullet connectors that might look like they should match up but didn't see any. Curiously, I saw a duplex wire (blue/gray) that had been cut off, and another wire with black coating with what looks like an in-line fuse cut off, both in the back port side of the engine compartment. It was out of reach, so I couldn't test them at the time to see if they are hot when the lights are on.

Does anyone know how I can find the correct wire to hook up the stern light / pole light on my model, or have a wiring diagram that I could reference? Perhaps I'm on the right track with the 2 wires that I found?

Thanks in advance!
 
You may or may not have to do some more exploration. Since you have the socket for the pole light, it likely did not originally come with the tower. So, at some point along the way, some owner added the tower. Point being - if wire colors aren't following the factory schematics, it's because of what some previous did/did not do. Also, your pole light may not be legal - it must be higher/taller than the tower (probably by at least 6"-12").
 
Does your tower have an access panel or a speaker you can remove to see what color wires are running to your tower light?

Does your tower light have one or two bulbs?
 
Wow, thanks everyone for the replies! Some replies back to you:

1. Thanks JimG for the link to the supplement manual, I only had the base manual. This might be enough to get me going. The wiring coming out of the tower is that color combo (gray/black), so it seems I just need to hunt around a little harder for a match.
2. Lazy Daze, nice to know about the pole light caveat. I was going to focus on getting the tower light going as a priority. With the wiring matching the color code of the harness, I'd bet that it was OEM.
3. Little Ducky, it's a one-bulb light.

I think I have enough to go on and will report back when I get a few moments to dig back into it. Thanks again everyone!
 
Ok boys and girls. The light is fixed. The blue/gray wire that I had written about originally ended up being the one that was hooked up to the light switch. That goes against the color coding that was detailed in the supplemental manual, but oh well. No clue why anyone would have cut the wire instead of just disconnecting it. It worked fine when I added an extension wire and some bullet connectors so I could reconnect it. So, that mystery is solved. Now to figure out what that other black wire is. I got a closer look at it and it's not an in-line fuse holder, but a DIN connector of some sort. I'll look at the wiring diagram to see if I can figure out what that might be, and if I do, I'll write back in with the result.
 
DIN or DIN like - most likely for stereo remote control.
Very well could be. The boat came with a new stereo system that had new remotes, so it's possible the installer ran new wiring for the remote and clipped the DIN off of the old remote.
 

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