No Power at the helm, low voltage on white wire

[gdubroc]

I connected the white wire directly to my fuse panel and the trim works. I don't have power to any of my gauges. WTF? Can anyone help?

From what I saw on my harness, there are three white wires that are connected and under the console. Knowing this would have helped a lot. One white wire comes from the engine in the main harness and connects to to other white wires where the harness splits. Half of the harness goes to the binnacle/switch/etc, the other half looks like it goes to the gauges and the third picks up power from somewhere. I thought the white wire coming from the engine supplied power but power is actually supplied at the console and fed back to the engine. If supplying power to the white wire that goes to the engine results in the trim working, you have a disconnect in either the white wire that is connected 12V or the white wire that feeds the gauges. Once again, all three of these are connect in my case.

Don't cut your plug off. You can buy a very sharp probe that will allow you to penetrate the insulation to see if you have voltage, just use liquid tape to seal the small hole it makes. If you don't want to buy the probe (under $5) or can't find one, use a file or grinder to sharpen one that you have or use a big needle to poke through to the wires.

[SteveHoliday]

No Power at the helm, low voltage on white wire

Not sure if I am having the same problem. I have a 2006 DF-90. Has run perfectly for last 2 seasons. Tried to trim down last week to start engine. Nothing. Turn key - nothing. All other elex work fine (VHF; GPS; nav lights, etc.) I have 12V to the starter solenoid, but engine will not trim or turn.

Is this the same set of symptoms, and what is this mystical "white wire"?

Thanks

[redlowrey]

Try the trim switch on the motor if it works the fifteen amp fuse that supplies battery voltage to the ignition switch might be blown. Also put some sort of load on the battery just in case it was voltage drop.

[gdubroc]

As redlowrey said, try the trim switch at the motor. If that works, check the fuses on front of the motor and if they are good, your problem could be the white wire that goes to the helm.

I think I have some pictures I can post to help you.

[gdubroc]

Hope this helps

Everything stated below is how my boat is set up; yours could be different. I have the 2008 DF225 but this problem and setup is used over various years and hp ranges. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

What is the white wire? The white wire(s) is the source of power for the circuit that energizes the binnacle, gauges and provides power back to the engine from the key switch and tilt switch.

The first picture is the main engine harness (circled). It is under the starter on the starboard side of the engine. If you look between the brown and pink wire, you can see the white wire. The wiring harness exits through the front of the engine as one harness (black and roughly 5/8" in diameter). It runs under the floor and surfaces under the helm. In my case, it surfaces as two harnesses, roughly 3/8" in diameter each. Basically the harness is split under the floor and some wires go to the binnacle while others go to the gauges.

All the wires in the harness are routed to either the gauges or the binnacle, except for the white wire. It is split and one goes to the binnacle and the other to the gauges (I think) or to a power source. It could go to the gauges, then a power source but after finding the issue I stopped tracing wires. This can be seen in picture two, also circled. You can see the two white wires between my fingers that go to the helm. The connector that you see is the white wire that comes from the engine, via the main wiring harness that we talked about above.

Of course, the problem was obvious once I pulled the harness into the helm. I had 8' of slack at the stern and pulled that into the helm, exposing the poorly connected white wires. You can see the oxidized copper in the picture. No attempt was made to seal this connection by whoever installed the harness and the location under the floor stays pretty wet.

In summary:

If your tilt does not work at the helm AND the engine will not turn over (Other electrical devices probably still work fine), try the tilt on the engine.

If the engine tilts with the switch at the engine, you have either blown a fuse on front of the engine or you have a bad white wire connection.

Check the fuses on front of the engine (there are 2), if they are good, investigate the white wire. Check for voltage at the engine and at the helm. You will probably see low or no voltage.

If it looks like your cable splits under the floor, pull the cable to the nearest end and check the white wire connections listed above.

If you find it is the connection, trim the wires back to good copper (this could be 6" or more) and reconnect the wires. Test the tilt from the helm. If it works, seal the connection. If you have enough slack to leave the connection under the helm instead of under the floor, leave it under the helm.

I hope this helps. It took me some time to find the problem but once found, the fix took just a few minutes.

[gdubroc]

One more note

If you look at the picture below, you see a male barrel type terminal that is covered with clear plastic (circled). This is a test point for the white wire. I hooked my meter up to this connector when I was troubleshooting the circuit.

[wakes225]

I have a df225 2004 I am installing got all Suzuki gauges nothing works no tach no volt meter tilt meter Engine cranks and runs tilt trim works from helm Just no gauges

[artdf175]

sorry I didn't see this thread earlier
read the sticky re the "white wire"
it may answer a lot of your questions
Art

[artdf175]

No Power at the helm, low voltage on white wire

Not sure if I am having the same problem. I have a 2006 DF-90. Has run perfectly for last 2 seasons. Tried to trim down last week to start engine. Nothing. Turn key - nothing. All other elex work fine (VHF; GPS; nav lights, etc.) I have 12V to the starter solenoid, but engine will not trim or turn.

Is this the same set of symptoms, and what is this mystical "white wire"?

Thanks

read the sticky
the power, through the ignition switch, comes from the white wire from the battery
the power then goes back to the ECM, no power to the ECM nothing will work when
this wire also provides power to the trim switch at the remote
on some wiring configurations it also will provide the power to the dash
Art

[wakes225]

the motor cranks and runs tilt trim works at remote just no gauges have a white wire with blue stripe not hooked up would that be the culprit

[artdf175]

Hope this helps

Everything stated below is how my boat is set up; yours could be different. I have the 2008 DF225 but this problem and setup is used over various years and hp ranges. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

What is the white wire? The white wire(s) is the source of power for the circuit that energizes the binnacle, gauges and provides power back to the engine from the key switch and tilt switch.

The first picture is the main engine harness (circled). It is under the starter on the starboard side of the engine. If you look between the brown and pink wire, you can see the white wire. The wiring harness exits through the front of the engine as one harness (black and roughly 5/8" in diameter). It runs under the floor and surfaces under the helm. In my case, it surfaces as two harnesses, roughly 3/8" in diameter each. Basically the harness is split under the floor and some wires go to the binnacle while others go to the gauges.

All the wires in the harness are routed to either the gauges or the binnacle, except for the white wire. It is split and one goes to the binnacle and the other to the gauges (I think) or to a power source. It could go to the gauges, then a power source but after finding the issue I stopped tracing wires. This can be seen in picture two, also circled. You can see the two white wires between my fingers that go to the helm. The connector that you see is the white wire that comes from the engine, via the main wiring harness that we talked about above.

Of course, the problem was obvious once I pulled the harness into the helm. I had 8' of slack at the stern and pulled that into the helm, exposing the poorly connected white wires. You can see the oxidized copper in the picture. No attempt was made to seal this connection by whoever installed the harness and the location under the floor stays pretty wet.

In summary:

If your tilt does not work at the helm AND the engine will not turn over (Other electrical devices probably still work fine), try the tilt on the engine.

If the engine tilts with the switch at the engine, you have either blown a fuse on front of the engine or you have a bad white wire connection.

Check the fuses on front of the engine (there are 2), if they are good, investigate the white wire. Check for voltage at the engine and at the helm. You will probably see low or no voltage.

If it looks like your cable splits under the floor, pull the cable to the nearest end and check the white wire connections listed above.

If you find it is the connection, trim the wires back to good copper (this could be 6" or more) and reconnect the wires. Test the tilt from the helm. If it works, seal the connection. If you have enough slack to leave the connection under the helm instead of under the floor, leave it under the helm.

I hope this helps. It took me some time to find the problem but once found, the fix took just a few minutes.

--your in summary
"if the engine tilts with the switch on the side of the engine...."
wrong --- well partially correct--that trim switch gets its power source from a different source than all the rest of the circuits that run the engine. it will run independent of the remote trim switch.

the white wire at the engine (larger HP engines) should have full voltage
the white wire off the battery splits pre-remote. one lead to the remote- the other to the engine, one of the relays if I remember correctly. both ends should have full voltage.

[wakes225]

I got my meter out and power was on all grey wires but the grounds were not hooked up correctly it took a while but I finally got tach and battery meter going .I started out using one ground wire off loom from engine harness when Itried another ground wire nothing that showed me my problem from there just a matter of hooking the black wires iin right sequence .Thanks for help

[Mortarman0341]

Someone needs to make a video of this.