Greg were did you get yours?

Digi-Key. Look at the AMP circular plastic conectors Series 4 shell size 23. The 23-13M has a mix of large/small pins suitable for the required high current and low current connections on the boat, and will leave you some extras if you add other sensors/connections later. They still aren't cheap (probably $30-40 per motor for all the pieces), but much less than the Merc ones, and since they are repairable IMHO better than the Merc ones.

You need a square flange receptical body (for the motor bracket), free hanging plug body, male pins and female sockets (two different sizes), heat-shrink backshells and a pin removal tool (if you want to remove/repair a connection later on). All of the pieces are listed/sold seperately, but it's pretty easy to figure them out, just follow the notes as to which pin or socket goes with what connector series.

You should always put "sockets" on the boat and "pins" on the engine. This is of course opposite of what Merc did, but with sockets on the boat there is no chance of accidentally crossing two pins and causing a short (ie. always put "hot" connections on socktets). Drop me an e-mail if you need any details.

-Greg

Greg, if it wasn't my race boat I'd build out the harness your way. Problem is its the race boat. Engines go in and out and ignitions may change. I want to be able to use Mercruiser parts and not have to break down the wiring each time. Jon, I'm going to send power to the feed and run a seperate 8 ga ground. It'll get me to the races next week.