454 mag Silent choice doesn't work!!!
 

I have a 1996 crownline 454 mag with Silent choice exhaust and I cant find a wiring diagram. When I hit the switch it lights up but the silent choice actuators do nothing. The exhaust stays close to thru hull. I can manually pull them open but i want the button to work. The guy I bought the boat told me the breaker kept popping on this and all that needed to be done was to push the button but that didnt work. Ive tried tracing the wires but they are in the harness. I have the manual 16 but it only has troubleshooting for air pump style and not electric which i have. I feel like there may be a fuse somewhere Im missing but without a diagram I cant hardly troubleshoot it or tell where a fuse may be.

Mine started doing that also, and it was the control piece inside the harness in most cases, but can also be the solenoids. If its the old 4 wire ones, I would just upgrade to the newer 3 wire and new harness. That's what I did

Ill have to do some research but I believe its the standard/stock mercruiser silent choice with two wires on it. Let me look into what I have. I feel like there has to be a fuse somewhere and Im missing it.

It is definitely two wire but I believe it is Corsa exhaust.

It has only 2 wires feeding the control in the harness, but has either 3 or 4 wires from the control to the solenoids

I haven't checked the other side but I will. First where can I find the "control in the harness"? I was able to look at one of the solenoids and two wire have post on the solenoid but there is a 3rd red wire that is cut. Its about a foot long and is attached to the accessories post on the solenoid. I assumed it was for amp and speaker system but no I'm thinking this is why it isn't working. I don't see anything where it should go or another wire somewhere else. a schematic for mercruiser with the electric exhaust would be most helpful right now.

Unable to find a diagram but the link previously posted has how to test the parts and harness.

Here is another discussion
https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/...e-problem.html

Good info Alldodge. I called corsa and they sent me the wiring diagram. Now if I can find the solenoids for the exhaust I can test it.

They should be sitting on top on the diverters.

Ken

I meant to say "if I can find the relays"

So i got the engine back together and I found a wire on one of the solenoids that was cut. I spliced it back to the solenoid after I found it tucked in a mess of wiring in its tube. Still no luck. I havent had a chance to look into powering of the solenoids yet but I will and post back.

Found the problem. This breaker has no continuity. I can jump it and both actuators work. I have ordered a new one but will be a week or so till it comes in. Anyone got any ideas how I can jump the wires and keep them protected? Thinking of a 10 amp fuse and rigging it up. Anyone got a better idea?
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...95196cf68.jpeg

Yes,get a ATO 10 amp fuse holder & crimp it inline,gtg.

Well that didn't work. Put a 15 amp fuse in it and it blew. Put a 20 amp fuse in it and it held for about 30 seconds and blew again. I'm thinking there is something with the thermal fuse that will allow it to operate without tripping it because its based on heat and not amperage. Does anybody know? Everything works now it just keeps blowing a fuse. How can I find out if it's pulling more amps than needed...what could cause it?

Think of the switching as 2 stages. The first stage allows max current to pull in the solenoids, once pulled in the current is reduced to keep them held. Your control is either not shifting to low setting, or the solenoids are drawing to much current. Since the wire was cut, my guess is the solenoids where blowing things so it was disconnected. The easy fix (thou costly) would be to get a new 3 wire harness and solenoids from Corsa

I Id get an inline amp gauge and wire it in series at the breaker and watch how many amps it pulls and holds. It could be the diverter plates themselves are binding and causing the high load.pull the assemblies off the manifold and see if your amp load goes down? Move the diverters manually and see if they're binding.

I have moved the diverters by hand and they are not binding. in fact as the engine is running I can hear them flapping as each cylinder fires off. If this is a two stage type system is there a way to test to see if the other stage is working? I have only tried this while the boat is NOT running. Maybe starting the boat to test it will give more voltage thus lowering the amperage. I did find some corrosion on the relays so I will clean that up to see if it helps. I do have a DC amp clamp i can test with but Alldodge you might be right on it being cut because it was blowing things but since it has its own wiring straight to the battery i dont see why that would be a problem. I dont see any melted wired. None of them were hot . When jumped it engages both actuators nicely with no wires heating up.

Engine running or not the differential amp pull is negligible. Like many other motor driven or in this case solenoid driven set ups the relays are turned on to do the major amp load instead of a switch. There are a lot of different quality relays out there. What I have seen in the past especially with wet or humid environments is the relay plugs get corroded & cause issues. The other issue is the relays internal silver tips get corroded causing intermittent operation & or higher amp draw because of burnt contactor tips.
I have not trouble shot this system but as said above applies across the board..

All I can tell you is I had the 4 wire system and similar things started happening, but mostly it would not fully pull in. Contacted Corsa and discussed (real friendly folks) on the phone. Decided to buy a new 3 wiring harness with solenoids. Worked fine until I removed them during my repower. Make it easy just call Corsa

I called Corsa and they suggested replacing the relays as one may not be working. Told me i could get them at Autozone and they sent me some oring the mail for free. There is a small water leak at the flange. Really good guys over there. Nice to see they will stand behind their product that long.

for future reference what was the part number of the relay they gave you?
they have sent me the o-rings a couple of times, have always been impressed with their customer service

They didn't give me part number. I went to autozone and bought 2 40 amp 5 pin universal relays. Installed them and all appears to be well. The auxiliary wire on both relays aren't hooked up and it works good and not tripping the breaker. I will however figure out where the aux wire goes and hook it back up.

Replaced the orings and it was a simple straight forward job.

Awesome