Force 125 no power to instruments

[Mark SF Bay]

Bayliner Capri- I have power to acc. Nav light, horn ..... all working. But no power to instruments. I think it's an ignition switch problem or a bad ground. My manual has a very nice detailed instument wiring diagram for an L-Drive but nothing for my 1988 125 Force model 1254X8c.
Does anyone have a pinout for the ignition switch? I need to know which lug sends power to the guages when switch is turned on.
Also where the instrunent ground wire is located under the dash.
I've owned the boat for years and this is the first instrument elect. problem.
Any help would be great.
thanks

 

[pnwboat]

Re: Force 125 no power to instruments

Do you know if you have a fuse block that has all the fuses for the electrical components on your boat? Normally, if you do it's located under the dash. You can also follow the wires from your gauges to see if they go to a fuse block.

Also check around the battery. There may be an in-line fuse located by the battery. Also check for a small (usually black) ground wire that comes from the gauges to the negative post on you battery. Make sure it's connected properly.

 

[john from md]

Re: Force 125 no power to instruments

You have a bus bar for positive and negative under your dash. They are fed by a positive and negative wire from the engine harness.

When you say no power to instruments, what are you looking for, backlighting, needle movement ?

If you search for ignition switch in the Force forums, you will find several posts that have the switch posts identified.

John

 

[moparman]

Re: Force 125 no power to instruments

Mark, I have the same motor on a 1988 cobra bow rider[1254x8c] ,and my fuse holder is under the dash as pnwboat stated. The ground comes off the switch and is black in color, this wire grounds the whole dash out , because fiberglass just doesn't make a good conductor of electricity[ huh, go figure]. There are 10 sockets for fuses on my boat but yours may be different.Get you a flashlight and crawl under the dash and check it out, keep us posted as to what you find . MOPARMAN

 

[Mark SF Bay]

Re: Force 125 no power to instruments

Thank to everyone for your replies.
This is a frusterating problem. Everything was working fine a few days ago.
This is what I've found to this point:

There are 2 seperate feeds for 12v to the control area.
1. there are 2 smaller wires (#8) supplying power from the battery to the fuse block. Both #8 12v DC+ and DC- feed wires are supplying power and all fuses test good.

2. Ignition switch wire harness supplys power for the instruments when the ignition switch is turned on. The blue wire on the ignition switch feeds power to the instrument lights and sending units. There is no fuse to the instruments.

I've put a meter on the blue wire at the ign. switch and have 12 volt+ when the switch is on.
So it must be a ground wire problem. It's very difficult to see the back side of the guages. I think the entire instrument cluster /w dash will need to be removed
I found a broken ground wire at the fuel tank. I repaired the ground. No difference.

john from md
I have no back light to all guages and no needle movement on the fuel and voltage guages. the tach and speedo have movement.

I'm still looking. Thank you to everyone.

 

[Mark SF Bay]

Re: Force 125 no power to instruments

I found the problem.
It was not a loss of power to the instrments. All lights, fuel and volage gauge had burn out at the same time. The caused of complete failure to all 12 volt items on the instrment panel was the main circuit breaker thet feeds power to ignition swich and instrments.
When I tested the circuit breaker with my ohm meter it showed 0.01 ohms of resistance but under an operating load the breaker was going into HIGH resitance causing a power spike. I replaced the breaker with 10 amp fuse.
Problem solved.
Now I need to replace fuel and voltage gauge.