New Radio and now boat won't start

[stoos10]

I just installed a pioneer stereo in my boat and it was working perfectly until (For some reason) I decided to see if my Nav Lights were still working as well?? As soon as I hit the nav light button the radio stopped and now when I turn the key the boat is completely dead. I have gone through all the fuses under the dash and none are blown. I disconnected both battery terminals and let it sit for awhile hoping maybe it would reset something and I would be good to go (No such luck). It's a 1989 Bayliner Capri and I am suppose to take my family on vacation on Monday with the boat (some vacation that's going to be if I can't get the darn thing to start!). If anyone has any wisdom concerning this topic I would certainly appreciate suggestions or solutions. I did not install a stand alone fuse from the radio to the power but I think that may be a good idea? I also unplugged the entire stereo system to see if that was dragging something down but boat still won't start. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank You!

 

[Texasmark]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

Wellllllll the first step in troubleshooting is to go back to where everything worked....i.e. disconnect the radio. Since you say all your fuses are ok...in your fuse panel one would assume, take each one and pull it out and re-insert it a few times to polish the contacts.

Then go back to the batteries and look for inline fuses which are usually within 12" of the battery.....open them and inspect for something blown/dirty contacts.

Either you hooked your hot wire to ground when installing the radio, or the power circuit you hooked the radio to is not rated for the amperage that your radio used....and apparently other things were connected to that fused line and you blew the fuse killing everything else.

Mark

 

[Fishing Dude too]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

Counld be a main breaker/fuse that is in line somewhere. Look at the fuse box, then look how wireing runs,

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

OK, I must admit ignorance - is your Bayliner Capri an outboard or IO? If an outboard there's a fuse in the engine which will kill power to everything if it's blown.

You're probably going to have to spend some quality time with a multimeter methodically going through your wiring to see where you have power and where you don't. In addition to a blown fuse you could have a corroded wire which was on the verge of failure and a little extra load put it over the edge.

 

[JimS123]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

As Earnest would say, you got a shorrrrrrrrrrrrtttttt. Disconnect everything and make sure all the positives and negatives are on the right places.

 

[stoos10]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

OK, I must admit ignorance - is your Bayliner Capri an outboard or IO? If an outboard there's a fuse in the engine which will kill power to everything if it's blown.

You're probably going to have to spend some quality time with a multimeter methodically going through your wiring to see where you have power and where you don't. In addition to a blown fuse you could have a corroded wire which was on the verge of failure and a little extra load put it over the edge.

It is an IO

 

[fishndirk]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

Sounds to me like you burnt a contact between your batterys and your switch pannel. If you say your fuses are located at your switch pannel, none of them are blown and nothing works than your problem is between you batterys and your switch pannel. Trace the wires, buy or borrow a multimeter to test for continuity between your batterys and the switch pannel. If everything stopped working it should be kind of obviouse whats busted. You may have to get down and dirty and really dig into where the wires go to find the problem. BOAT (Bust Out Another Thousand)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Beefer]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

Also check to make sure a wire didn't get knocked loose during your install. Everything else that I can think of seems to have been covered.

 

[etracer68]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

Last year I bought a 19ft Capri that was junk, and I wanted the trailer. I used a chian saw and sawsall to cut it up, and scrap it. I kept alot of things from the boat though. The fuse panel was separate from the swich panel, but very close to it. Im using the fuse panel in my other boat. It has a small neg spade side, and a large pos spade side with fuses. There is a No 10 wire running to both sides. I would check to see if you have power to the fuse panel. If not then you have a problem there. Also on IOs, there are fuse links in the engine area, and on some an reset button. Some of this has been coverd, just thought I would throw in my .02. Hope you find it. Bayliners are pretty simple under the dash.

 

[stoos10]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

Wellllllll the first step in troubleshooting is to go back to where everything worked....i.e. disconnect the radio. Since you say all your fuses are ok...in your fuse panel one would assume, take each one and pull it out and re-insert it a few times to polish the contacts.

Then go back to the batteries and look for inline fuses which are usually within 12" of the battery.....open them and inspect for something blown/dirty contacts.

Either you hooked your hot wire to ground when installing the radio, or the power circuit you hooked the radio to is not rated for the amperage that your radio used....and apparently other things were connected to that fused line and you blew the fuse killing everything else.

Mark

Thanks for the input. Here is what I had to work with (I'm no electrician thats for sure). I had to cut the old weiring harness off (was just a 6 pin harness) that I am told was running an old cassette tape deck that came with these boats. I had a RED wire which I hooked up the RED and YELLOW wire from the stero to. I had a BLACK wire which I hooked the BLACK ground wire from the stereo to. The other 4 were speaker wires that I hooked the rear right and left speakers to the appropriate colored wires on the stereo. Going to be checking for an in-line fuse by the battery as you suggested and around the motor as another poster suggested after church this morning. While I am out I think I will stop at harbor freight and pick up a multimeter (Not sure how they work but hopefully come with directions) and see what I can find with that. Will update my post once I finally figure out (if I do) what the problem was. Thanks to everyone for all the knowledge passed along - it's great to have people to throw things off of and get some help - will certainly be frequenting this site often!!!! Thanks Again

 

[stoos10]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

Well - now it's running? Spent all day looking at fuses and testing wires all the while I had a battery charger on the battery (did not think it was dead but thought what the hell, give it a try!). Just when I was about to abort the mission and beg the local boat shop to take a look at it first thing tomorrow morning, I took the charger off the battery (Which when I hooked it up showed 75%?), hooked up the cables and turned the key - lights in the dash came on, needles jumped to life and the motor turned over???? I'm guessing that the overload of the circuit zapped the battery enough to drain it just enough to cause issues????? Thanks again to all who contributed idea's.

Now I'm afraid the hook the radio up again for fear that we will be out on the water and this will happen again. Any suggestions on how I should wire this thing to avoid this from happening again?

 

[Fed]

Re: New Radio and now boat won't start

You could have had a high resistance connection at one of the battery terminals and you inadvertently fixed it when you reconnected the battery.
The battery connections need to be shiny clean & tight.