Transducer Repair?

[DWY]

I just purchased a 1988 Searay and it has a pretty large Lowrance and a small Garmin. The previous owner said “the transducer didn’t work since I bought it for the Lowrance, so I bought the Garmin for navigation”.

What exactly should I look for to troubleshoot the transducer?

Do I just pop the floor panels and follow the wires?

 

[Skybolt]

Welcome aboard!

But what exactly is going on? Transducer is not displaying depth? If you could post the model numbers of the displays and transducer that would help. But you should be able to look on the back of the displays and see what's plugged in where.

 

[Lazy Daze]

I just purchased a 1988 Searay and it has a pretty large Lowrance and a small Garmin. The previous owner said “the transducer didn’t work since I bought it for the Lowrance, so I bought the Garmin for navigation”.

What exactly should I look for to troubleshoot the transducer?

Do I just pop the floor panels and follow the wires?

Finding it is easy, that's not a big deal.

But... a transducer is not needed for navigation. They are two separate functions of an MFD.

There will likely be no "repair" - replacement only. That's IF the transducer is still manufactured. We have no idea how old it (or the dash unit) is. Contact Lowrance and see if they still offer the style you have for the head unit you have.

 

[DWY]

Finding it is easy, that's not a big deal.

But... a transducer is not needed for navigation. They are two separate functions of an MFD.

There will likely be no "repair" - replacement only. That's IF the transducer is still manufactured. We have no idea how old it (or the dash unit) is. Contact Lowrance and see if they still offer the style you have for the head unit you have.

After some back and forth, he said the previous owner told him “I scraped the bottom and that stopped working”.

I don’t even know what that means.

On my kayaks, I had a fish finder and navigation device and that was inside the hull with nothing protruding from the bottom. On boats like this, is there some that sticks out that somehow would be affected by what the owner said? My guess is there isn’t and he just equated the scrape with it not working when it is actually something else.

 

[Skybolt]

After some back and forth, he said the previous owner told him “I scraped the bottom and that stopped working”.

I don’t even know what that means.

On my kayaks, I had a fish finder and navigation device and that was inside the hull with nothing protruding from the bottom. On boats like this, is there some that sticks out that somehow would be affected by what the owner said? My guess is there isn’t and he just equated the scrape with it not working when it is actually something else.

In most, if not all, cases the transducer is a through hull mount and has at least a small section that protrudes. This is the most common transducer type and style. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/88681

Edit: Transducers are very sensitive microphones and speakers built into one device. Any type of strike on the face of it can cause permanent damage to the transducer.

 

[Lazy Daze]

After some back and forth, he said the previous owner told him “I scraped the bottom and that stopped working”.

I don’t even know what that means.

On my kayaks, I had a fish finder and navigation device and that was inside the hull with nothing protruding from the bottom. On boats like this, is there some that sticks out that somehow would be affected by what the owner said? My guess is there isn’t and he just equated the scrape with it not working when it is actually something else.

Transducers (for pleasure boats) generally come in three styles and you could have any one of them.

-- "Shoot thru"... glued to inside of bilge floor
-- "Through hull"... a hole in the bilge floor that it is inserted into and protrudes about 1/4" underneath
-- "Transom mount"... mounted on the transom

EDIT: Since we know it's not something installed by Sea Ray, and with the info of "scraped bottom"... there is a chance it's a transom mount and either got kicked up or simply broke. Either way, you'll know more when you look.