The gremlins have started !

[Jackwabbit]

Electrical problems,
As can only be expected seawater & electric’s are not the best of bedfellows!
Our rib is now 18 months old & the gremlins are starting to worm their way in,
The Garmin Fishfinder 100 no longer shows a good trace of the bottom, at low speed it will show a flat bottom even when we can see the rocks coming up under the boat. It will show the depth but only after its been on for some time & travelling at low speeds, & at high speed it shows nothing at all, not a lot of use when we use the boat for diving.
The trim gage has stopped working & so has the warning buzzer, and all just as the weather starts to get better.
So here are some questions for all you experts out there, is it worth getting the fishfinder repaired & where can we get it done? Does it have to be taken off the boat to send it somewhere or does anyone know of somewhere in the Swanley area that can do it while still on the boat? come to think about it, is it worth having it repaired or should we just get a new one?
Does anyone know how the trim gage works & where is the first place to start looking for faults?
& the same goes for the buzzer.
I suspect the gage & buzzer faults may just be a dodgey connection somewhere, they started as intermittent faults working sometimes & not others now they have stopped altogether.
Any help would be appreciated, I’m hoping to find time at the weekend to have a look at it, while the rest of the club’s in the Red Sea (lucky lot)

[Bill S]

Check and clean all the earthing points you can find.

On my mates new rib, the trim gauge was wonky - would appear to be working as you started trimming, then needle would just drop to bottom!
We had a good old play with it on the trailer one day, pulling wires, cleaning, tightening connections etc, and after the 3rd beer or so, came to the conclusion that the earth connection from the sender unit attached to the leg was dodgy. We simply added a short piece of wire to a known good earth further up the leg, and its been fine for the past couple of years.

Its a relatively easy one to check for, just take off all the earth connections on the units that are giving bother, wire brush or sandpaper till clean and bright, and put 'em back together nice and tight. A little bit of vaseline jelly smeared over the top helps to prevent further problems.

hope it's as easy for you...

Bill

[Jackwabbit]

Thanks for that Bill,
I have just spoken to the very nice people at Garmin & they are going to send me a new transducer FOC to try, if this doesn’t sort the problem they will change the head unit for £43ish.
We were planning on re-routing all the cables through the side of the console at some time, so it looks like this weekend will be a good opportunity that way we can check all the connections at the same time.

[Erin]

Trim and buzzer on a Suzzy presumably. If its anything like my 90 there is a small plastic lever switch fitted onto the pivot point of transom bracket. I knocked mine the other day and it stopped the trim working. This may be yhe problem with yours.

Keith

[Jackwabbit]

Buzzer now working it must have been a dodgy connection, by unplugging the wiring loom going into the consol & plugging it back in it all seams ok at the moment.
The trim problem turned out to be the switch on the engine, shorted the wires going back to the consol & the trim gage shot into life, tested the resistance through the switch & it was a permanent open circuit.
So it was off to my local Suzuki dealer for a few parts,
Trim switch £135 Out of stock. (HOW MUCH !)
Longer steering cable so we can move the consol forward £75 Out of stock.
Fuel tap for a Mariner 3.3hp engine Out of stock.
Garmin fishfinder on its way back to Garmin, it turned out to be the head unit that has developed a fault.

[DM]

Originally Posted by Jackwabbit

Trim switch £135 Out of stock. (HOW MUCH !)

Yep. I had a good gripe at Suzukis MD at LBS with reference to his spares policy. Robbing git.

International Marine Supplies came up with a trim switch for me last year at £35.

Garmin 100 series? Chuck 'em in the bin. I haven't come across one that works well at any sort of speed.

Steering? You could probably get a complete new system including head, cable and wheel from Nautequip Marine Supplies for £75.

Mariner 3.3hp fuel tap? Bill Higham Marine in Manchester.

DM(Priceless)