Wiring Help!
 

Dropped new engine in this weekend with new wiring harness and the engine starts and runs great, all gauges appear to be working correctly but none of my switches work. When you turn some of them on they will light up other switches. I have tried to trace wires to check for a bad ground but it is like finding a needle in a hay stack. Any suggestions where to start?

main circuit breaker normally located on engine; under some wiring schemes it supplies power for accessories. could also be circuit breaker located within about a foot from your safety main switch(es)
just hold down the red button(s); good luck -jeff

I tried that, I even tried a jumper wire thinking the circuit breaker may be bad but same result. I don't understand why when I turn the blower on the light works but it also lights up other switches. I have not touched any of that wiring and it worked when I put the boat away last year. The only thing new is the harness on the engine. This has really got me stumped.

The key switch will not cut the engine off either! :eek:

sounds like a ground issue with your harness....when you hit a switch and it has power...it will need a groudn source to complete the circut....so it will jump to other acc. that are turnd off to pull a groudn from...and in turn light up the other switch cause its seeing a power source on the light of the switch thats turned off...
First thing i would do is verify you hjave a good ground from battery to engine....then check where the engine harness is gorunded at. If those two things dont find an issue then i would run a jumper from the battery ground straight to the switch bank ground under the dash and see if that solves the problem....if it does then you gonna have to back track the ground wire from the switchs to where it gets its source from...

If you hooked the alternator diode wires up incorrectly, the key switch will not kill the engine. Depending on the style of alternator you have, the two spades that go to the diode could be reversed. I did this once...

Zack

I think I found my Key switch problem, I ran my 12v wire to the D.U.I. distributor from the red/purple trace wire. I think I need to use the purple ignition wire for the ditributor 12v source. That should kill power the coil when the key is off. I don't know what affect that is going on my acces. switch problem though. I am going to try this tonight. I am pretty sure the red/purple trace wire is the power feed for acces. Right now I have that power feed coming out of the plug to the top terminal of the circuit breaker. Then it breaks off and part of it goes to the top terminal of the starter slave solenoid and ther other goes to output on the alternator. Does this sound correct?

yes the red/pur wire is a Misc acc. feed wire....

Do you think that would have any effect on my switches by having that wire tied to the distributor? I like to think that by using the purple to feed the ignition instead of the acces. wire I would solve both problems! :rolleyes:

i wouldnt think it would have any effect on the switches....i mean all you were doing is giving the distributor a constant 12v feed....it shouldnt have made one bit of difference to the switches as far as back feeding....the switch thing i believe is still something else...but stranger things have happened! :)

Wally, thanks for your help, I will do more troubleshooting tonight

ok, just got in from the shop, switching to the purple wire as 12v source at distributor took care of the key shutting engine off. Just like wally said, it did not take care of the accessory panel problem. I ran a ground jumper wire straight from the battery to the ground block behind the helm, after I did that my blower switch worked, horn worked, lights worked, but still getting nothing from the hatch switch or the bilge pump. I took the front of the dash off and checked all connections and any fuses I could find, everything looked ok. then I stood on my head :o and tried to trace wires all the way back and still came up with nothing. When I had the engine out I scrubbed the bilge, mounted and wired new fuel pump and there were no wires anywhere to be seen and when I dropped the new engine in I simply hooked the master plug up and bolted battery gounds to the flywheel housing. So where does this thing ground? Where do I go from here?

And I don't know if it matters but all of this stuff worked perfect when I put the boat away for the winter and pulled the engine out, so it has to be related some how.

check your grounds and make sure you have good connections.....even though it looks good and the bolt is tight, you may have paint acting as an insulator and not contacting 100%.....do you also have a good ground going straight form the battery to the engine block?? try useing a jumper cable from the battery to a known good ground on the block...like a bare bracket or to a mounting bolt on the intake manifold etc...and see what happens...you may even have a bad ground cable from the battery!

I just wanted to thank you guys for helping me! I fixed it last night and it turned out to be a bunch of different small things that had sent me on a wild goose chase. It turned out part of the problem was a bad ground that must have corroded just from sitting over the winter (as I did not mess with this at all during engine install). What really had me confused was why I still had two switches not working after I had run the ground jumper wire. It turned out that the plugs had pulled apart on the hatch actuator down inside the plastic sheathing when I swung it to the side getting the engine out. The next thing I found was that the bilge pump had quit over the winter. I tapped it with something and it cut right on. So everything is fixed now. I wished I had known the bilge pump was bad while the engine was out!

glad it all worked out for ya. :)