No power at either tachometers 2005 sx230

[rulski]

Hello! I recently became a new owner of a 2005 SX230. It's in great shape but neither of the tachometers have worked since I picked it up. The fuel gauge was also stuck at over 100%. I've read other post and was able to fix that pretty easy by making adjustments to the fuel sender.

I've checked all the fuses and confirmed they are good. I've also checked with a multimeter and neither one of them is getting power. To test I ran a bypass and connected it to each tachometer and they both worked. This confirmed they are in good working order, just not getting power through the connector.

Is there anything else that is known to keep power form getting to them? Also, if I leave the bypass in place will that cause any problems? I don't want to my my situation any worse, but they are working with the bypass.

Any thoughts or suggestions I'm all ears. I'm new to working on boats so I don't know all the lingo but will try my best.

 

[Julian]

In the starboard storage behind the cabin seats is a round plastic access port. Remove that and reach in there and pull out the wiring harness. You will find 2 grey connectors that are where you connect #YDS to in order to read engine hours etc. These also connect to the tachs. When unplugged the tachs won't work. Pull them apart and clean and dry them. See if that helps.

 

[rulski]

I took the two grey plugs apart to see if I noticed anything missing or damaged. They look brand new when opened. I didn’t see any issues here no moisture or anything as well.

let me know if these are not the correct ones.

 

[rulski]

I checked the power at the grey plug and it was normal. I then checked it at the plug that the tac connects to and nothing. When looking at cables it seems like it’s direct from that back grey plug to this plug for the tac so not sure how it could be bad in the middle somewhere. I will check more as someone could have spliced into it along that path and that is what’s broken. Not sure where or how as there really isn’t much room. So confusing..

 

[WREKS]

I think they are 3 pin connectors. Mine have a plug cap attached with fishing line that blanks them when they are not being used for YDS.

 

[rulski]

Oh my!! I owe you a beer or something. I’ve been spending hours tracing cables and trying to figure out why power wasn’t getting to the tac’s. They were not plugged in!!!! They were capped off. So I plugged them into the following and everything is working:



thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Saved me hours of investigating and troubleshooting.

 

[Beachbummer]

It's possible they were unplugged to read the hours/diagnose with YDS and then not reconnected. Wild Theory. Glad you got it working!

 

[Julian]

Yup....the plugs can be seen in your first photo