Let there be light
 

I purchased a 1997 Baja 273. Batteries are charged turned on gauge lights and they were Amber and very dull. What can I do?

Being a boat of that age, I would make sure the batteries are actually fully charged & there isn't a bad cell causing an issue. If that's good, check your connections to the gauge lights. Most likely they share a common ground. Weak grounds can do all kinds of strange things.

Have you pulled the bulbs out? They may be amber glass. If so you can probably find clear bulbs to replace with.

Be advised,, bright gauges are bad for night vision. If you run on dark nights, you need all the night vision you can get.
Another fun fact, red light does not effect your night vision. Guess what color mine are.

I do understand about the amount of light for the night, but I should be able to see the numbers in the needles which are hard to read. I did not pull the bulbs but I assume That since ALL the gauges are very poorly lit there has to be something in common. I’ve had boats all my life and never had this problem unless it had a dimmer switch which it does not seem to have. That’s what it’s like. If you dim the lights in your car to where you can barely read them. I’m sure they’re not meant to be this Dim after all your car gauges are not dim.How do I test for a bad ground? I guess I could start there

Have you checked voltage at the light socket? I also see sometimes people will put 24v bulbs in a 12v system and it will be dim.

I will try that first and go from there slowly but surely. If I can’t find it and I’m sure other people will. I also have no trim indicator or depth finder numbers on the gauge. Any further ideas?

What position is the perko switch in ?

To be honest with you I really don’t remember but they are new batteries. Maybe I should check to see if it could be a bad switch or corroded. Good idea. I will check it tomorrow

To be honest with you I really don’t remember but they are new batteries. Maybe I should check to see if it could be a bad switch or corroded. Good idea. I will check it tomorrow

Does the engine turn over?

Could also be a combination of a few things. Lens clouding from time, needles and numbers fading, mediocre wiring from new which has now built up resistance, contacts inside switch corroding and adding resistance. I've had the contact points between the spring clip and glass fuse get oxidized and needed to clean it to get the bilge pumps to run at full speed. Lots of basic but easy troubleshooting. Odds are they make an LED replacement bulb that will be considerably brighter than a filament bulb

[QUOTE=Jojoegen;4719171How do I test for a bad ground? I guess I could start there[/QUOTE]

I would run a 14ga or larger test wire from the batt ground terminal and connect it to the dash ground and see if the lamps get any brighter.
Look for wiring that doesn't look original. When I first got of of my boats, found someone had powered the cigarette lighter from the clock with ~22ga wire. Spot light didn't work very well.

The lens seems to be clear but it’s the amount of light being omitted around the sides of the gauge. You might be right about there LEDs. I will look into that. How do I test for bad ground because there are so many ground wires . I have checked the Perko switch and it doesn’t matter where it is, the probably still remains whether it’s one battery, two batteries or both. I do not see anything lit up In the trim tab meter.either. As I said the light coming into the ground from the sides just don’t pray enough

I'd get a digital multimeter capable of volts/ ohms which can be found cheaply and will allow you to check everything out. See what the voltage is right at your battery, see what it is at the fuse block and at the gauge itself and anywhere else. There is likely a strip of metal in or near the dash wiring with lots of black wires going to it. Frequently smaller black wires coming directly from the components with one or two larger black wires running back the battery/ engine compartment area. You should be able to check all your grounds right at that strip. Use the ohm meter or a test light to check them.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...247f26c2f6.jpg
Here's mine. The black wires are all my grounds. I expect you have something similar. I find it easiest to test them with a test light. If anything seemed suspect I'd switch to the meter.

Thank you my friend. I will attempt this this week and see where I go from there again thank you very much for your display and you exclamation I do have a multimeter then I will let you know the results