Ski213

Well on the plus side your passengers may want to run around a lot and get you a little further in to the break in than you would have otherwise. I’ve never done the full break in on an outboard. I kind of finished the break in on the new power head when I bought my boat and I remember it being pretty monotonous.

What came of the trailer that your wife found?

Two guys on the bow is the easiest I think but it sounds like that’s not good for your particular situation. I have no idea what your boat setup is or what the specific technique your using is, but it seems like you could come into the reed line at a steeper angle with the boat and just park the bow close to the line where you can both parallel cast a section at a time. Not as efficient as running the boat parallel to the line and casting straight off the front while constantly moving but would allow the co angler to stay in what you’re saying is the productive zone longer. We’ve had some limited success using the outboard as a rudder. Turning it so the boat wanted to track at an angle while working down a bluff wall or whatever. It made it where the guy in the back wasn’t as blocked. Not a perfect system by any means. Requires a lot of repositioning as you work your way down the line. It’s fine for covering water though. Once we’d hit a productive area we’d get the boat more perpendicular to the line and parallel cast that section more thoroughly.

Congratulations!!

I wish that I had the skills required to tackle that kind of project but I don’t envy the amount of work your undertaking. It’ll be better than new when you’re done and I’m sure it will mean a whole lot to your granddaughter though.

I can’t imagine tackling something of that scale. I imagine you have a solid plan though. How flimsy are they when they’re compromised like that? Is it something you’ll be able to support at just a ton of points or more like the sand deal you talked about where it’s almost like the mold type of support?

Looks like the floor has definitely seen better days.

Gonna be one heck of a project for sure. Cool that you are doing that for your granddaughter. Hopefully you’ll get lucky and it won’t need the full gut. Either way I’m sure you’ll have it one nice rig when it’s done. If it’s as bad as you think it might be, what kind of time commitment is it gonna be?

I’ve always heard this. In my personal experience as it relates to a dogwood in my yard and a 5 acre pond on the farm it’s pretty accurate. I’m not a great bed fisherman so when the tree out front looks like a snowball I’ve missed the time when when I personally have the best chance to connect with a big one. The tree is bout 3/4 mile from the pond.

I’m excited to watch this go down. Hopefully your wife doesn’t stay mad for too long about it. Can you just pull the top cap with boat on the trailer or do you have to kind of shore up the hull to keep everything from moving?

I see what you’re saying there. I guess my concern was where I’m reading the current away from the battery cable when the starter engages (and there’s no other draw or very little). I still read 20 something amps on the battery cable but I also get that 3 up at the cluster. I’m terrible at explaining stuff so i did this crappy sketch to maybe better illustrate it. Sorry to be taking so much of your time on this but I always appreciate the education. Sorry for some reason I just could see the first paragraph of your reply when I replied. Thanks!

Well over the last three months I haven’t had a ton of free time but a little at a time I’ve dug through every accessible bit of the wiring harnesses. I’ve never found the source. All what I’m calling the branch circuit grounds (lights, pumps, etc) are intact and the meter says they’re good. I did pull the control cable out with the intent of replacing it. Everything checked ok with the meter. Visually checked the ground conductor where the insulation had melted then rigged up a sort of load tester and after it all seemed good I put it back in the boat. I replaced all the damaged wire in the console and harnesses. Had to re pin several molex connectors as well. I’ve run all the items on the boat while monitoring the ground wire. It all seems ok except for one deal. I had bumped the starter before and saw a blip on the amp clamp on the ob harness ground in the cluster. I put it on the hose and actually cranked it. I got 3A draw in the cluster for about the first few cranks then it falls off as it continues cranking and starts. 0A when running. (This is with the ob harness and boat harness grounds linked as they originally were. If I unlink them no current. The battery cable to the starter and that ob harness ground land on the same stud on the starter. I guess it’s running up that ob harness to catch ground on the boat harness. I’ve unlinked them. I did the math and the boat harness ground is more than sufficient size for what’s on it. I can’t find anything wrong with the connections at the starter or in the battery cable so I’m not sure why it was looking for ground in two paths. Thinking about replacing the battery cable anyway though. Am I wrong to be concerned that I got that 3A draw where I shouldn’t have? It’s no problem for that wire to carry that 3A but it just doesn’t seem it should have been there at all. I can prevent it by having the two harnesses isolated from each other but it still seems like it shouldn’t have happened either way. Thanks for all the help. I appreciate it.

I feel your pain. Had it straight up handed to me yesterday, which was my first time out this year sadly. Never even got a bite. Threw a lot at them too. Stuff that should work, stuff that has typically worked in the conditions, and then just threw whatever. Don’t get down. Just stay after it.

Congratulations on the sale. I imagine it’s kind of bittersweet. The guy got lucky. You having been it’s owner I’d say it would’ve been next to impossible find and more mechanically and structurally sound ride. Parting with something that has so many memories can be tough. Always has been for me.

Something along these lines. What kind of dogs are they?

Yep. 5 acre farm pond. Usually right about this time of year. Typically my best luck has been with red. I focus mostly on the dam. Specifically the corners of the dam on this particular pond. There is some cover on this pond but this time of year the dam area is most productive. As far as retrieve I try to let the fish tell me what they want and I’ve done anything from yo-yo to ripping them with success. I start with a pretty steady medium retrieve though and try to stay somewhat high in the water column to begin with.

This is simply my opinion based on a lake pretty local to me. About an hour away and I think it’s around 6000 acres. There are certainly bass in it and some decent ones. Typically the guys that do consistently well there for bass are very experienced on the waters. To the public as a whole it’s known as a musky lake though. I’ve heard it called the Dead Sea by most when it comes to bass. Years ago I assumed it was the musky hurting the bass population. Over time and after learning more about how the lake is managed I think it’s a management issue. By issue I’m not meaning a problem, more just what fish and wildlife is shooting for in that particular water. I’m not a biologist but it seems in that lake they shoot for a biological balance of all other species in the lake but focus on the musky population being abundant to keep it a popular musky fishery. Again this is just a laypersons opinion but maybe what your seeing is the result of what the managing entity (if there is one) is shooting for. Maybe the decline in bass fishing is a result of a focus shift in the management of the waterway. Could for sure also be just a natural shift though. Just a thought. Either way if that’s one of your spots I hate that you’re seeing a decline in bass fishing.

Try this link. https://www.crowleymarine.com/mercury-outboard/359.cfm?mdl=VVRZEW

@Way2slow mine is one of those with quite a few connections at the battery. I’ve been threatening to change that for awhile. Guess now is a good opportunity. Gonna try to get after separating everything out tomorrow. Something I’ve always wondered that you may know the answer to. Why did OMC run a separate green ground wire to the battery that only serves the fuel sending unit? I don’t know if your Jav is that way but I know of several Stratos that are done that way.

Ok I’ll check that out. On mine there are three plugs at the ob that make up the cable that runs to controls and key switch. Two of them are 6 pin. One of those appears to be solely for the ignition switch. It’s appears and ohms out ok. It has the black yellow as you said and on mine black white for constant ground to the switch. There’s another 6 pin that has the damaged ground in it. That 6 wires appears to be mostly VRO/engine temp related so I guess that’s heading to the system check gauge or whatever deal at the console. I assumed the black in that plug given the damage was the same wire as at the tach. I’m gonna have to separate some stuff to verify that now that I’m thinking about it though. The last plug is just a 3 pin that is trim sending unit to gauge and trim up/down from the remote trim controls. I’ll have to separate the grounds off the starter and do some more digging. I’ll try to do a better job isolating stuff next time I get to work on it. It’s making it harder for me getting 5 min here and 10 there. Hopefully this weekend I can just get on it and stay on it for a few hours. I really appreciate the assistance!

Sorry for not replying back quicker. @Guitarfish yes that does make sense. Thank you. Hope you hand is feeling better @Way2slow Have only had time to mess with it here and there for a few minutes. There is continuity back to the battery ground from the tach ground. I did determine that the ground loops back to the battery so that wire at the tach or I guess really that whole wire, can get to ground two ways. I’m calling the control cable ground part of the OB harness (gauges, ignition switch) and the other harness the boat harness (pumps, nav lights, gauge lights, etc.). They’re tied together behind the cluster. I can’t swear it’s factory but it appears to be. The majority of those ground wires at the console are I believe 16ga. As it heads toward the battery on the boat harness it steps up to a 10 ga I think. That’s where the damage stops in the boat harness. The one in the OB harness stays 16ga all the way back and is damaged almost to the point where it lands on the starter with the battery cable. I can’t find any damage anywhere but on what I’m gonna call the main ground wires. None of the grounds to pumps, etc have any visible damage. Everything works. I put an amp clamp on the damaged ground at the tach to see if I got any kind of crazy current while turning everything on. I didn’t really get anything at all odd. Did get a blip when I bumped the starter but only around 0.2A. Also something that I noticed was if I reversed the leads on the meter while reading continuity from tach ground to batt ground and switched the key to on, I lost continuity. Perhaps that’s normal. I’m assuming that there’s a diode or something that I’m reading through in the ignition? Maybe. That is with the boat harness ground disconnected so the outboard harness isolated. Any possibility that if I had a crap connection on the ground cable (which I didn’t find yet) from the batt to the outboard and had cranked the motor or trimmed the engine up it could’ve gone looking for ground through the ob harness, into the boat harness and back to batt -? Thanks guys.

I’d want to know for sure where my leak was I think. Most likely a cracked hose or fitting, but I’d make sure it’s not getting around the thru hull fittings. I don’t know your exact system, but the only adverse effect I can think of with plugging all my through hulls is that rain water can get into my wells. If I plugged my overflows the live wells could fill and at some point overflow into the bilge.

As a quick update I did end up checking voltage from bat- to the one of the melted ground wires. Reads 12v but won’t light up a test light. Pulled the ignition switch and all the wiring to it looks intact. No tripped breakers and no blown fuses anywhere on the boat. Having a little trouble figuring out what’s coming from where. A couple ground wires head down to a giant bundle of wires behind the panel by the hotfoot. This weekends project is gonna be to cut the cable ties off that and start pulling it apart between rain showers.

Ha! No definitely don’t want to go that route. Gonna chase down the source first for sure and address that. Not looking to burn it down and don’t want to pull that cable more than once, heck I don’t really want to even pull it once. I go back and forth on even replacing it if it ohms out ok after I clean up the rest of the mess but I think I’d sleep better if I did.

I’m somewhat concerned about that multi wire cable. Even if it all ohms out ok I’m assuming the inside of it looks like everything I can see. As you mentioned, the boat smoking would not be a great situation. I think I found the cable for sale. Wasn’t free but not terribly expensive. I’m sure it’s a treat to replace though. I’ve not done anymore tracing tonight due to weather but hope to get back on it later in the week. I haven’t found any blown fuses or tripped breakers yet but I haven’t checked them all. Thanks guys.