Livorsi speedo
 

My 2008 35' fountain's tattle-tale GPS Livorsi speedo no longer gets a GPS signal. After its turned on, it eventually settles at the 9 o'clock position or roughly 53 mph. They no longer offer service on the antenna or gauge for that matter. That gauge is really hard to get at. There is a massive zip tied coil of wire behind the gauge which I suspect goes to the antenna. The smart craft speedo works, but doesn't display the speed prominently.

Whats the best way to get at the gauge and also the antenna? Reach up from underneath, use the access panel in the head or unscrew or remove the entire dashboard?
Once we get at the gauge, does anyone know in advance if that gauge can be made to work with a new antenna or could it somehow receive the GPS signal from the smartcraft? Or does it already receive the signal from the smart craft?

What is the best option to fix this?

I bought Livorsi's new antenna that doesn't have a battery and it fixed my problem. The old antennas had a battery that would eventually die.

That seems to be the fix. There are comprehensive installation here: http://www.riverdavesplace.com/forum...-for-about-100
An OEM but non=Livorsi labeled gps antenna can be bought for $85 instead of $220 -$280 here: http://www.amazon.com/Sierra-Interna...ilpage_o05_s00
Livorsi sells the 3 plug adapter for $40, but I suspect it would be more like 4$ on ebay or less. I'm going to try to reuse the small white 3 prong adapter and solder it to the GPS antenna wires. A replacement gauge kit is $525+.

Taking off the dashboard to get at the speedo is a bad idea...that went well until i had to take the mechanical indicators off....(the little white tabs on the trim indicaters) and the spring loaded posts holding them fell away and had to be fished back up with hooks. Reasonable access to the speedo is through the dashboard access in the head. Unfortunately you can see or get a wrench in but not both.
I'll let you know how it goes once the part arrives.

drfred, how'd that work out for you? Mine took a crap, pretty Sh*tty a battery dies & they claim it can't be fixed, oh but here is the $500 replacement for a new one!

I bought three of those replacement antenna kits for the three speedos in my Donzi from Hardin marine but my rigger just replacd all three of my monster speedos with new ones -so I have three of those antenna kits avil cheap if anybody wants one or all three.

I had the marina do it while I was away. It didn't work so I ordered a new guage. Livorsi had warned me the speedometers with molex plug didn't work. So now I ordered a new speedometer which has the 3 discreet connections. Not super important because I get speed off the vessel view.

Marginmn I'll take one!

Will send you a message on Facebook.

Your GPS should have a NMEA data out feed which you can tie into your speedo. You just have to configure the GPS to send the signal to the gauge. Check the documentation that comes with the GPS to verify that it does provide a NMEA data output stream.

When my GPS antenna puck died, I just cut the wire and ran it to my GPS output instead. Took about 10 minutes and some electrical tape. Yes, I still have the dead puck glued to my dash, but I don't mind it.

gps speedo
 

Same situation sent mine to a guy on the west coast reprogramed new battery sent it back in a week works great 2005 fever this is his # 818 257 0909

My 2004 38EC has the same problem. I've read that a replacement battery normally fixes the problem. Is the battery in the GPS unit or the gage? Also I'm trying to figure out how to get the GPS unit off the dash. No screws are visible anywhere around or under the unit. Any ideas how to get it off?

Yep, did the exact same with mine. Works great.

I'll post a pic of the pickups I have to solve this issue when I get down to the boat tomorrow.

I am very anxious to know how to remove the Livorsi speedo sensor.

The Amazon GPS antenna does correct the problem, even if you have the molex plug. I believe Livorsi says there is no longer a fix for the old units, because they no longer stock the right antenna. There is no way I can be 100% sure on this, but it is what I have determined through my dealing with the dead antenna issue. The amazon antenna can be purchased in a 1x per second or 10x per second model. The new livorsi speedo is a 10x sec unit, so they naturally stock and sell the 10x antenna. By the way you can also buy the 10x antenna on Amazon for half the cost Livorsi sells it for. If you buy the 10x antenna, it probably will not work with the older 1x speedo, I cant really be certain about this part as I have never attempted to install a 10x antenna. If you buy the 1x antenna, like I just did for $89 on amazon, you can easily splice the wires into the molex plug and it works as it should. It was a very simple install. I would suggest looking at the above riverdavesplace link for photos and instructions.

In my opinion, I would never buy another livorsi product because of how they handled this known issue. They design a product with a battery that they know will eventually go bad. There is a known fix for less than $100. Instead of telling their customers how to correct the problem, they lie to you and tell you that a new $500 speedo is the only fix. That's not the right way to treat a customer if you ask me.