Electronic throttle system fuse / breaker???

[B-Rock]

Wondering if any of you have any experience with Cummins Mercruiser ETS (electronic throttle system). I lost all power to my throttle/shift controls yesterday, and am waiting on Cummins to come down to look at it....but it seems like it might be a fuse or breaker somewhere that might be tripped. It worked fine when I brought the boat home last week, and tried to head out yesterday only to have no power or function at all with the throttle/shift at the helm. There is 1 four pin cable coming out of the back of the throttle control at the helm, but I was not able to trace it from there to see where it goes, and see if it might go to a fuse or breaker somewhere. Not sure when Cummins might be able to come down, and my dealer thinks there is a fuse somewhere for this....but not sure where. Any info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[RayRayCACuddy230]

:smt100 Just bought a gently used 1989 Cuddy 230 with a 7.4.ltr Bravo
It ran fine up until the 4 run on the river. It backfired 2 times and then ran fine after that till the end of the day. The next time we went out we had 8 people on the boat. pulled a tube for about an hour then the fun began - we hooked up to a few friends boats then on our way back to the Marina the boat died. I still had power but it wouldn't start - you could turn the starter and run the engine but would not idle to power. I took a look behind the panel and noticed that the Ignition Switch had a slight burn by the Solinoid wire, probably the reason the the key was hot after awhile. He wiggled the switch and then as I turned the key to the on position the gauges jumped. I replaced the "3" prong switch and now the boat won't start at all.

Any ideas would be appreciated - We love the boat but the Wife is getting a little edgy:smt021

 

[elreyos]

B-Rock your trouble sounds just the same as my friend had with His New 52DB. The boat was delivered and all worked fine, however he had a simular problem after a couple of weeks. Sea Ray replaced both the control head and precessor to cure the trouble. As it turns there was firmware upgrade issued to correct the trouble. Have your dealer check software level on the control head and the cpu to make sure it's the latest version. It's easy to check. It's stamped on both units

Andre'

 

[Robski97]

I got chills reading this .... Whast the plan B to electronic throttle failure ??

some string ? oars ?

MAN.....


Rob

 

[B-Rock]

After reading EVERYTHING I could about the ETS system in the last day...it appears that if there is an issue in regards to software upgrade or voltage getting to the system, the system will keep working until it is shut down and fixed. The lights on the helm control will also blink in different patterns signalling some sort of issue. I never saw any lights blink, but the last time I took it out was a 3 hour ride home in 6' - 10' seas....so the only thing I was looking at when we got back was the dock and a cold beer. I too got thinking "what happens if this dies while underway", but it does appear that it will still function until shut down depending on the problem. I did find a series of fuses on the control board in the engine room (right under the black plastic oval Cummins Mercruiser label), and those are all the mini blade style fuses....2, 3 and 7.5 amp under there. They all tested fine...so it looks like the helm control and or the main control box will need to be replaced when Cummins Mercruiser tech comes out on Tuesday.

 

[Fitzroy]

I am interested to know what the cause of the problem was and how it got fixed

 

[Robski97]

And here we sit... waiting....

Rob

 

[B-Rock]

sorry guys....was on a business trip last week...and just am catching up now.

Anyway, Cummins Mercruiser came out and replaced both the helm control as well as the control module box in the engine room. They upgraded me to a newer controller and module which had newer software in it (not sure what is different...but whatever), and everything works fine now. It turned out that both pieces were cooked from something. When we took the old module box off...something smelled like it was burned inside the box, and we tried just replacing that unit, but still did not work until we replaced the helm control also.

 

[elreyos]

B-Rock, there are terminating plugs used at each end of the cables that connect the contol box and the control head. The plugs are used to match impedence, because there digital repeaters amplifying the signal from the control head to the control box. Without these plugs the repeaters will overload. You may want to have your dealer check to make sure they are installed correctly.

Andre'

 

[B-Rock]

Thanks for the heads up. We did test all the terminator plugs, and everything seems to be working fine now. Not sure what the cause was....but both the helm control and board were cooked.

 

[Robski97]

Brain,
Did they give u any kind of input into a catastrophic failure scenario ?? ( How u could possibly limp home ? )


Rob

 

[tobnpr]

I'm curious about backup as well.
Glendinning and Teleflex both provide for mechanical cable backup in the event the electronics fail.

 

[B-Rock]

The tech that came out did not know too much about the system, but from everything I read on it, there will be error messages that flash on the helm control if there is a problem. Once powered down, the system will either power back up with the same flashing error message, or will not power up at all which is what happened to us. I never did see any error messages on the lights....so not sure if there was a problem and it kept running until it was shut down...or if it happned during the few days we were docked. My hope is that the problem happened while underway on the way home, and I never saw the error lights, but it kept running until we powered down. That would make me feel much better about the system.....if anyone know anything different....I am not sure I want to know about it!!!