Keep Blowing Fuses

Twainer

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
May 10, 2016
Messages
178
Have an old 78' Mark Twain OMC with the 351w. Orange wire going to the ignition has a inline 20a fuse that has blown before. It did it again so I put another fuse in it & it blew right away. I am sure there is a grocery list of things it could be.
 

Lou C

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Nov 10, 2002
Messages
13,064
Trace the wire to see if it rubbed through to a bare spot and is grounding out
 

alldodge

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
42,631
The ignition circuit should be a 20 amp fuse. It goes from key to coil, alternator, automatic choke, ESA and gauges. It is the circuit which powers up everything.

Start by disconnecting things and reconnect one by one until it blows
 

Twainer

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
May 10, 2016
Messages
178
Thanks all... I will look into both of those next weekend when I work on it again.
 

Twainer

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
May 10, 2016
Messages
178
Ok so I figured out that it has something to do with the fuel sending unit. I just put installed this sending unit. There is really no way to hook it up wrong! Hot wire in the center & the ground. Checked out continuity on everything and all is good. Even run the tester from the hot wire to a ground to see if it was possibly grounding out somewhere. Everything fine there too. When I check the voltage of the hot wire (pink) that hooks up to the hot side of the sending unit I get 7.57V. What do I have wrong here?
 

alldodge

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Staff member
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Mar 8, 2009
Messages
42,631
Nothing is wrong, its as it should be.
12V connects to gauge, the pink wire feeding sender does not have full voltage

Gas Gauge.jpg
 

Twainer

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
May 10, 2016
Messages
178
Blew another fuse without the sending unit being hooked up, so that pretty much knocks that out as being the issue. Outta time this weekend so I will dig into it next weekend again. Another issue is this boat is so old that some of the wiring as been messed with over the years. Not all of the colors are as what the shop manual states. :grumpy:
 
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