Wiring Question

[djtech2k]

I was putting my batteries back into my boat this weekend and there is a red wire with in-line fuse that I cannot figure out what it goes to. It looks like about a 16-ga wire so its nothing big. I have a 2nd red wire that is a little thicker that I tested and it is for the helm gauges and the radio.

This ~16-ga wire I cannot figure out. I do not have any other accessories or anything that I know of, so not sure what it could be. I can disconnect it and all the switches work at the helm, so its nothing related to that.

Any ideas of what it could be?

On a separate but related note, I replaced the radio on the boat this weekend also. The radio that was installed was not the original. I was surprised at the wiring colors from the boat for the speakers. They seemed to be very non-standard so I followed the exact way the old radio was installed for the speakers. I do not know if that way was correct, but I did not have a diagram or anything. I tried the 9v battery test but it did nothing. Anyway, so I was wondering if anyone has any wiring diagrams for the speakers in a 2012 SX210. I tried the new radio and I know its playing so at least part of it is right. Not sure if all the speakers are right and/or if the F/R fade or L/R Balance is correct.

Behind the radio I also noticed some cables that I am pretty sure are audio related. There were RCA signal cables and a large round plug. I can see that they go down, but no idea how cables run on this boat. I know the RCA cable could have been for an amp or something, but where are wires normally run on these boats?

 

[Dave burke]

Can you send us some pics? It would be easier to see what you talking about.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Where does the wire go to? Is it the wire for the current Bilge? Bilge's are usually wired directly to the battery or the switch post.

 

[djtech2k]

I didn't get a lot of good pics, but here are some.

This is the red wire to the battery. I was not able to trace it out but I will do that the next time I go to my boat. I think I looked at it last fall and it went thru the engine compartment, but then I lost it. That's just from memory though so I would have to look again.



As for the speaker wiring, this is not a good pick, but you can see the strange wire colors coming out the backside of the electrical tape. This is how it looked before I got started. Like I said, I could not figure out which wires went to which speakers so I just followed the way it was wired with the radio that installed when I got it.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Check your bilge, sounds like that is what the red wire is for. Very important that is working correctly.

 

[djtech2k]

When I was testing to find the hot wire for the radio, I found that the other red wire controlled all of the switches at the helm, including the bilge and the radio. So based on what I saw, the bilge switch it hooked up trough the power wire that controls the helm and the radio.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Yes you have one at the helm for the bilge. But your bilge may be an always on one that is also directly to battery. Mine has a switch at the helm and also is always on and tied directly to battery. That is for auto mode. The bilge should run if you are off everywhere.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Go fill your bilge with water, run the hose there or something and see if your bilge kicks on. Then connect that wire and see what happens.

 

[Elliott]

Your bilge pump should/may have a test button. Press the button and you should be able to hear and feel it kick on.

 

[HangOutdoors]

It still good to make sure the float works as well for auto on.

 

[TimW451]

Here is a pic of my OEM radio wiring. I haven't looked at it recently, but it looks like the plug converted the individual speaker wire pairs to a single duplex wire to go out to the speakers. I assume you found something similar when you took the tape off.
The colors as standard:
Purple: Right Rear
Green: Left Rear
Gray (looks like this became black): Right Front
White: Left Front

 

[djtech2k]

What I would expect for speakers is purple, green, gray, white, and then a corresponding negative with the black stripe. The radio that was installed in my boat was not connected to a "harness" like in your picture. It was just a bunch of individual wires. So for example, I think the old radio was installed where like 1 speaker had 1 purple and 1 black wire, and so on. I could not make any sense out of the boat wire colors, so I just connected them to the new radio the exact same way they were on the old. I am just hoping that it is correct. The wires were not super long so it was hard to work with at times, but the colors were definitely not what I expected. My picture is not good but you can see coming out of the black electrical tape what I am describing.

On your picture toward the left side I see what looks like a pair of RCA connections along with a fat, round connector. Mine has those too but there were not connected to anything. What do those connect to?

 

[TimW451]

@djtech2k I‘m following you now. The wire to the left aren’t duplex, those are pairs going to the rear and then your fronts are in the center and right of the pic. Looks like I got all blacks for the secondary speaker wire too. Cheaper for a large spool of black than the “correct” color I guess.

The close set of 4 RCA plugs in the pic are the line out from the receiver. The background pair are the line in that connect to the mini plug at the helm. The big black connector (which I think is the other thing you asked about) next to those is the remote on the swim platform.