Gauge weirdness underway...

markrinker

markrinker

New Member
Jul 19, 2011
325
Lake Union - Seattle, WA
Boat Info
2000 410DA
Engines
Caterpillar 3126
While scanning gauges, to my momentary alarm I find the starboard side

  • hourmeter blank
  • oil pressure reading 0
  • voltage reading 0
  • fuel gauge reading 'E'
    SeaRay monitoring system was still happy and reporting all systems normal. Water temp was reading within 5degrees of port side.

    Pulled back throttles, shifted to neutral. Idled for a few minutes, then decided to shut down the starboard engine and restart.

    BINGO. Everything comes back to life on the starboard gauges, including the hourmeter, which is now .2hr behind the port side.


    What say ye? My experience/general pessimism says this will not be the end of this little glitch...
 
I'm not sure this applies to your situation, but I think it's worth mentioning. Last season, my port engine (gas) developed a habit of randomly shutting down while at cruising speed. It would always restart, and could idle forever. I noticed that before a shutdown "event", the port gauges became erratic, but they would stabilize and the engine would stay running if I tapped the parallel. The culprit ended up being the Carling ignition rocker on the dash. $13 at FP - possibly the cheapest repair I've ever had.

This spring, an intermittent starting problem with the stbd engine was becoming a bigger problem. I was already prepared to replace that rocker switch too, and sure enough, not only did it fix the starting issue, but the warning tone, which had gone from lethargic to absent, returned to new. (i'm not sure why I thought that each engine had a dedicated buzzer, when that lethargic tone was giving me a warning about a bad switch for a year in advance)

I did a post-mortem on the starboard switch, and I found exactly what I expected: photo.JPG

It looks very much like the pwr window switches in an Audi I once had. I kept the Audi windows alive with alcohol and a Q-Tip, but these Carlings are pretty tightly sealed. This was the 5th switch to fail. I think that leaves 18 still to go. :(
 
Not sure it's the same issue but since we have the same exact boat I thought I'd chime in. My port oil pressure gauge sometimes flutters very low then down to zero. If I ease up on the throttle it will return to its midpoint position and remain there after pushing up on the throttle again. Both of my tachs also occassionally get stuck around 2000 RPM but never simultaneously. I just bought my bought and had a mechanic go through everything on the engines so I'm attributing it to the gauges going bad.
 
RollerCoastr said:
I'm not sure this applies to your situation, but I think it's worth mentioning. Last season, my port engine (gas) developed a habit of randomly shutting down while at cruising speed. It would always restart, and could idle forever. I noticed that before a shutdown "event", the port gauges became erratic, but they would stabilize and the engine would stay running if I tapped the parallel. The culprit ended up being the Carling ignition rocker on the dash. $13 at FP - possibly the cheapest repair I've ever had.

This spring, an intermittent starting problem with the stbd engine was becoming a bigger problem. I was already prepared to replace that rocker switch too, and sure enough, not only did it fix the starting issue, but the warning tone, which had gone from lethargic to absent, returned to new. (i'm not sure why I thought that each engine had a dedicated buzzer, when that lethargic tone was giving me a warning about a bad switch for a year in advance)

I did a post-mortem on the starboard switch, and I found exactly what I expected: View attachment 25170

It looks very much like the pwr window switches in an Audi I once had. I kept the Audi windows alive with alcohol and a Q-Tip, but these Carlings are pretty tightly sealed. This was the 5th switch to fail. I think that leaves 18 still to go. :(
Click to expand...


I am betting that something this simple is to blame. Time to get a handful of new swithes as spares. The indicator light on the windless switch works about 50% of the time, for example.

Bottom line is all these gauges lost power (not signal from sender) as a result of something happening. Maybe that switch got a well placed drop of spray...we did have the wipers on and were taking big spray at that corner of the windshield (full canvas up, Lake Superior) previous to the event. The control panel/swithes/gauges did not get soaked, but there were drips and spray.
 
If the engine continued to run, then that pretty much rules out the ignition switch since the feed for the fuel supply relay comes from that switch.

I am betting on this: Your gauge panel is on a separate wiring harness from the lower panel with the switches on it. Remove the panel with the gauges and look for the harness behind it. Find where the wire harness from the gaugest plugs into the mating harness. Separate the 2 halves of the plug and reseat the pins into the nylon blocks or plug halves. Those pins sometimes will back away from the mating part and yopu lose the connection between the male and female parts of the pins. IN your case, you are losing the 12VDC supply for the gauges. Don't worry about finding it, just reseat all the pins in the harness....if one is loose, then others probably are as well. Reseating is done by pushing the metal pins back into the nylon block with a small screwdriver.

That one is simple and has a high probablilty of being the correct fix.......hope so because it's easy!
 
markrinker said:
While scanning gauges, to my momentary alarm I find the starboard side

  • [lots of gauges blank]
  • SeaRay monitoring system was still happy and reporting all systems normal. Water temp was reading within 5degrees of port side.
  • [reboot fixed it]
Click to expand...

I had a very similar problem. I have SmartCraft, including the display. DTS (digital throttles). Every once in a while, especially after long runs, all gauges would drop to zero. The SmartCraft display would lock up, nothing would work.

Except, fortunately, the computerized throttles still worked. At least I could stop. Shutting everything down, turning off the battery mains, waiting several minutes would reset it, like you found.

Drove me crazy, and it was dangerous. Checked for firmware updates, but the shop just said "sometimes they do that, we hear about computer problems all the time."

Good news is, I think I fixed it. No faults at all this year. Shut down all the battery mains. Pulled the main SmartCraft plugs from each engine (it's a big plug on the top near the silver engine computer on mine, they are labeled something obvious like SmartCraft, just a twist-lock to disconnect). Made sure the pins were clean and sparkly, reconnected.

No problems yet this season, including my longest run yet. Keeping fingers crossed.

Rich
 
My issue re-appeared a few weeks ago. Exactly as before: a voltage drop in the port ignition circuit. I bought some time by running the generator and converter, but last week that trick stopped working as well. I replaced the port ignition switch again, and the problem went away. The port voltmeter shows around 14 volts with the engine running - about a full volt more than I could get as the switch was failing, and slightly less than stbd. I'm not sure if I can read much from those gauges though - I don't trust any of them to be highly accurate.

I'm bothered by it though. That last switch only lasted 2 years. Did I get a bad switch, or could there be another factor I'm overlooking?
 
Sounds like a bad connection somewhere in your port side harness. I'd start at the batteries and alternator and work my way through the system, armed with a big tube of dielectric grease and time to kill. Good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,253
Messages
1,429,324
Members
61,129
Latest member
MinecraftRuSwilm
Back
Top