Merc wiring ?

[MOP]

I have a small 3 wire harness that come out of the main harness about a foot before the engines harness plug. Its in a fairly heavy plastic sheath with white, black and green wires no tracers. Everything is running working ETC. but I hate mystery wires that don't seem to have any place to hook to! What am I missing?

Another odd thing I found there is no hot start wire coming off the starter to the coil post is empty, weird bump the key to start let it go and it fires off like a cannon much to the delight of my neighbors. Will not start until you let the key go, I will just add a wire for that one.

Call it **** happens in 18 years!

Phil

[MOP]

Hmm! Thanks that may be it, what puzzles me is the terminal ends show of being hooked up with bright washer marks. No Mercathode on this rig.

Phil

[MOP]

Need someone to lift the hatch on their mid 80's Alpha drive Donzi to see if they can see the wires I have described. Its Nuts I have looked in the manuals and been to 3 shops, they are saying it may be something Donzi did. It drives me nuts seeing loose wires that were obviously hooked up(eye ends show of being just taken off). Every other wire has a home and everything seems to be working just fine! One thought did come up that it may go to the shift converter.

Phil

[gcarter]

Phil I just cleaned and rewrapped all my harnesses and I have nothing like that. Have you looked under your dash? Doesn't that harness have the molded flat plug under the dash? Anything extra should be easy to find. Our boats are the same age.

[MOP]

Frickin mystery wires! I was going to call you to see if you were smarter than me and tagged you stuff. The wires come out of the intermediate cable the one that plugs to the dash then to the engine harness. If the terminals looked un-used it would not bug me but they were and show of recent hookup, everything is working go figure! When I crawl in under the dash I am to close to see well, bulbs are a bit dim at my age can't quite focus maybe I should take a magnifier with me.

Phil

[GKricheldorf]

Phil,

I did not see the wires you described. Here are a few pics of the mercathode and the trim pump you were asking about the other day. I'll look over my wire diagram again, but did not see any green only wires.

[GKricheldorf]

Phil,

I got somethnig you can try. Get yourself a tone generator. One like this - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=25420&item=3832225679&rd=1 - clamp it on the wire and you can trace it. Works like a charm ;)

[pipnit]

One thought did come up that it may go to the shift converter.


What is the shift converter? I have a 76 18' with a TRS and MERCII trans. It has a "Shift Actuator" which is a motor that throws the stransmission into forward, neutral or reverse. I had another post going the other day about this because my motor got fried and I needed to find another one.--FOUND A USED ONE!!! Anyhew, the wires your describing sound VERY similar to the three that hookup to the top of the actuator. A small Green one, a black one and a white one. There are small eyeletts on each end about 1/4" O.D. I'm not sure what year your boat is but perhaps these are the same wires???

[MOP]

DUNESMAN that might be a possibility but the boat is an 86 running an Alpha not TRS, there were no loose wires when I pulled things apart. The terminal ends show of fresh lock washer marks, the white wire was cut flush with the harness end unused only black and white were hooked to something?

Phil

[MOP]

Oh my aching body, well crawled up under the dash N/G no matter how hard I looked no solid green or white wires. Crawled in even farther got my noggin over the side panel and found the harness coming out of the tube. It goes to an early style kill switch that went to ground and negative at the coil. It is a normally open where as today they use a normally closed switch and cut into the purple ignition circuit. Never saw a coil grounding kill switch!

Like My signature says! "Every new Challenge presents a new learning experience!"

[GKricheldorf]

Phil,

Even at your age it is still easy to learn how to operate a digital camera. And the prices are coming down daily. You should get one :rlol:

[MOP]

Yup still do things the old way(well most of the time), use film, use meters, tools older than most on the board etc. Why not has worked well for years. I am still of the school of it ain't broke don't fix it, but can fix or make damn near anything.
I have a bud that is a digital camera freak bet he has a dozen or more, I have gotten to try them all and still like the old K1000 35mm, it has and does serve me well. Being a yacht broker I can not believe I have not worn it out yet, bought a really nice Minolta full auto years back damn thing got confused shooting inside boats ruined a bunch of shots so I got rid of it and went back to my old K1000.
Being in the boating Biz for most all of my life, I can get, use or have done just about anything I need or want. I marvel at the pay backs of years of doing my best for people. It is very true what goes around comes around!

Phil

[JimG205]

Phil-My 86 Minx has the prestolite trim pump with brown/blk/grn&white.they come off the pump port side.Can't find any other wires that fit the description.

[doug hess]

On my lastest '88 Ragazza has the same heavy white plastic sheathed wires going to the gph fuel sensor installed in the steel gas line a couple of inches before the fuel pump. The sensor looks like a small die cast pressure regulator with white, black and red wires comming out of it. The other end of the white cable goes to the dash connecting to display unit wires.

Doug