So How Do I Wire This Switch Center With 2 Hots , Boat Only1

[driz]

Ok I found a nice 8 gang switch panel to fill the gaping hole the PO left in my dashboard. I see it has 2 hot leads , one on each end that seems to control the 4 switches in a row near it. Here is the rub. I only have 1 hot lead coming into the panel.
The obvious choice is to tie them both in together. That would make them hot all the time the battery selector (I installed a 2 cut off battery switch) is on. I can live with that setup . I'm sure the new fancy boats have a lot more going on up there as opposed to my 1985 Tracker. So is there any particular reason not to route both those reds together? Sorry about the upside down picture :LOL2:

 

[momule]

There's no reason to not tie the two sides together provided you have fusing that is adequate to protect all eight circuits. Myself, I would have no idea what I'd do with 8 switches in a simple jonboat like mine.

 

[Al U Minium]

To serve all switches with just one wire it would have a larger wire, perhaps a #10 or a #8. Using 2 wires of a smaller size, the wires can be tied together and fed from one source (of a larger wire size). Doing it this way for the manufacturer keeps the costs down as only one size crimp connector and wire size is used. A tip here; if the switches are not marked as you like, Brother label maker using TZ tape can be used to cover the markings. The tape will stand up to years of exposure to sun, rain, ice, heat and won't peal off until you want it too. Comes in colors and clear. So for a black switch with white letters, get the black tape with white letters. Make the font size like the original and it will look great.

 

[driz]

Just thinking about it a bit I wonder if the whole thing is supposed to act off the key switch on the outboard console. It got a bit confusing as I only ran the boat 1 season then decided to "refresh" it a bit. That came eventually to a complete tear down right to the hull. Of course then along came lifes other callings #-o . There wasn't any switch on the dashboard origionally, key is on the side console for the outboard only, but it may well end up with one. I would like to be able to kill all the power to the dash from in the drivers seat as the switches stay illuminated continually until I kill power at the main battery switch.
I diagrammed the wiring but since there were plugs on much of it I didn't do a detailed job. Add 2 years and replacing some of the old wiring and came the head scratching. I'll have to look at Tracker's website and see if by some huge stretch [-o< there might be a schematic someplace.
Note to anyone else taking one of these apart. TAKE PICTURES ( A LOT OF THEM, AFTER ALL THEY ARE FREE). THEN PUT THEM ALL IN A SINGLE FOLDER . That reference can be all you are going to get when it goes back together again [-X #-o

 

[perchjerker]

no

its not supposed to go through the key switch

for instance, you would have to have the key on to blow the horn, or turn on your bilge or any of the other things on that switch

 

[driz]

True enough. I'll probably just leave as is and kill it at the master disconnect. Trouble is that the ins
Dictators on those switches stay on constantly. I had read about that in comments about those spree wired panels someplace while shopping around the net. It's not hard to live with though being tiny LEDs . They can't draw enough to matter when their is a main disconnect . Besides its not as bad as the radio in my bay liner. That one just decides to switch on by itself so etimes #-o .

 

[perchjerker]

isn't there a separate wire for illumination of the lamps? Or do they light up when switched on?

 

[driz]

Ahhhhhh, typical Fleabay item. It must have been Monday at the Chinese prison. This sort of thing is all too common today as it's cheaper to just #-o shove stuff out the door bank on many saying nuts on it and giving new stuff to the rest. So much for quality control. Those idiots sent me two messed up switches. Both the blower fan and the bilge pump are momentary switches. One of them has 3 positions but even so it doesn't light up and who holds down a bilge pump switch? I even tried to pull one out and see if the rockers could be easily removed and switched as I have 2 extras, no dice. Too easy to break if they will snap off at all which looks doubtful. No thanks, they can either send me a couple proper switches (which I doubt) or refund me and send me a good one. I have other things to do on this project so the wait is no big deal.
In answer to the question when off they all light up blue and switch to green when turned on. Nice looking unit and looks to be of standard oem quality overall otherwise.
Best part is that I just did all this twice on a bicycle my wife just had to have. I sent the first one back because the rack was all smashed down into the rear fender. Funny, the outside of the box wasn't damaged but the inside was. Weird and you cant blame that one on UPS. So they send us another and it's exactly the same way broken and smashed in exactly the same places and fashion, exactly, no damage on the outside of the box. I get ahold of customer service and tell them they might want to look at their boxing process as it's smashing the back of the the bike down. I tell her just send me a set of fenders and two new aluminum brackets and we are good. Might as well have been talking to a bullfrog and this chick was from the good old USA. She gave me the polite runaround like a champ :---) but I used to grill people for a living and had none of her nonsense [-X . She didn't have much of an answer when I asked her how a company that makes bicycles can't manage to lay hands on a set of fenders or direct me to anyone who could do it. I ran her in circles for a while just to be crappy (and why not) then decided it wasn't fun anymore. We are taking it up with Amazon as of now. I'm glad I took some nice pictures. Boy you can't get anything today that's not junk , name brand or otherwise.

 

[driz]

Oh fwiw they did send me another switch. It took a while getting here but I swapped it out in the panel and alls fine now.

 

[DaleH]

FWIW power energized via the key switch is meant for gauges only and is typically a purple wire in color, e.g., typical tach harness is purple (power w/ ignition ON), gray (tach signal) and black (ground).