Scott,
I would first check the pitot hole on the front of the port & starboard drive (there is a notch on the front of the drive, the hole is in the notch). From my experience, if it is plugged from an encounter with a piece of wood, you will not get any speed data, fuel range, or gph data. The speed data effects the other data fields.

If you find the hole obstructed, find a drill bit that is about 3 to 4 inches long that is slightly smaller than the diameter of the pitot hole. WITH YOUR FINGERS, work the drill bit to clear it. You can blow 20 psi compressed air back through the pitot tube by finding the black tube on the back of the port side engine. There is a tube mender located there to pull the tube apart. Half the tube runs up to the Smartcraft...the other half disappears into the drive. That tube is connected to the outdrive using hose barbs...so don't blow more than 20 psi.

As a river boater, even the smallest sticks cause this hole to become obstructed.

 

Worst Case, if all Stray Cat's suggestions don't help, a new Pitot sensor may be in order.

 

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I will try those things next spring before the boat is put back in the water.

Scott

 

I have to have my Ray Marine unit turned on to get a speed reading on mine.
George

 

I had the same problem with my 300 when I purchased the boat last winter. Go through the settings on the speedo smartcraft gauge. My bet is the pilot setting is turned off. Turn it on and you should be good to go. If pilot setting is on, then check the pickup tube on the outdrive as indicated by the prior members.

Good luck and be sure to let us know what the problem was

 

I had the same problem with my 300 when I purchased the boat last winter. Go through the settings on the speedo smartcraft gauge. My bet is the pilot setting is turned off. Turn it on and you should be good to go. If pilot setting is on, then check the pickup tube on the outdrive as indicated by the prior members.

Good luck and be sure to let us know what the problem was

Two questions... how do you get the cover off the smart craft guages and also how do you get them into configuration mode. I tried getting the covers off before I got shrinkwrapped, but it wouldnt come loose easily, and I didnt have a chance to check the manuals on how to remove them. When they reconfigured my guages, they reset one but not both. Also I can only get the speed through the Starb tach and not the port one (temporarily my portable gps sits in front of the starb guage... Electronics suite is on the '11 install list!)

 

Another option here is to relocate the pitot so that you can get to it easily. The pitot entry hole is usually in the outdrive which clogs very easily and is hard to get to.
I recently had the local boat shop mount an external pitot sensor to the aft end of the boat when they had it out for outdrive service so that I can, 1. clean it easily, and 2. replace it easily and cheaply if it craps out.
They typically cost $7 or $8, 2 screws to hold them on.

 

One of the teeth on my wheel was missing, so it did not spin or register ANYTHING on the speedodemeter. I had it replaced when on the hard and it works fine now.

Funny thing though, the speedodometer is always a lot slower than what my gps shows. What gives:huh:

 

Can you use a Pitot tube on a SmartCraft display? Like most V-Drives, mine is driven by a paddle wheel. The Pitot tube systems I'm familiar with use the pressure all the way to the dash (in a tube) with analog gages.

 

My smartcraft still uses a pilot tube but instead of running directly into the speedo, it runs into box mounted on top of the startboard engine then a wire runs into the smartcraft gauge.

 

I have the same problem, but I have V Drives. Any one have an idea where I should start to fix this problem?