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Power Wedge Hooked up to Cigarette Lighter?!?!?!?


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So the power wedge hasn't worked on my boat since I bought it in 2014 (2006 VLX). It was stuck in the down position and last winter I had the dealer look at it and give me a price quote to fix it. While looking at it they jogged the actuators with direct 12v to put the wedge back in the up position. They recommended replacing the as they were making some noise and quoted me ~$2K for the repair. I passed on it knowing tat I could probably fix it cheaper myself. So I finally started tearing into it this weekend and I made some interesting discoveries:

1. I've always heard these rumors of a fuse for the wedge but I've never been able to find one on my boat. I wanted to rule out any electrical issues before I ordered new actuators so I started at the power wedge switch. With the boat on the trailer and the key in the "on" position I couldn't get a 12v reading on any of the wires on the power wedge switch. I have blue - white - green in that order, but no other wires going to the switch. It looks like every single other switch on the dash has a black wire going to the top right terminal, should I have one as well? Which wire is supposed to be the hot wire, the white? And Unless I am mistaken it should always have power when the ignition is on correct?

2. Since I didn't seem to be getting power to the switch I figured I would start chasing wires and looking for the fuse. On the wedge control box harness I have the following wires: a pair of black wires the are spliced together and ran to the ground block (I'm assuming these are ground wires that pass through the box and go out to the actuators themselves) a separate single black wire that is also ran to the ground block, and a pair of red wires that are spliced together and disappear back towards the throttle control. The black wires all go straight out of the harness and to the ground block (easy to see) so I started following the red wire with my hand to see where it ran to thinking maybe the fuse was hidden back there. It was hooked to something at the bottom side of the throttle panel. I started looking at where it seemed to run and thought to myself that looks like the area for the cigarette lighter/usb charge port. Sure enough I unscrewed the cigarette lighter and there was one red spade connector and one black ground connector on it (the cigarette lighter had never worked either). When disconnected the red wire was in fact the one that was running to the Wedge control harness (still no fuse). There is no way this was correct right? I'm going to give the former owner the benefit of the doubt and assume that when they were doing some of the stereo work that it got unhooked and was just reconnected incorrectly.

3. Where should I go from here? I have open breakers on the breaker panel (30 amp one for a power seat), should I just hook the red wire up to that? I metered it out and it does have voltage coming out of the unused spade. I would like to be able to eliminate all electrical gremlins before I buy new actuators. So to me this says I need to be getting power to the dash switch and then power to the actuators themselves before I do that.

Anything else I should look for?

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I just figured this out, your switch wires are correct.

I'd bet just hooking to a good known power source will get you fixed up.  Your dealer that quoted you 2k to fix is a crook.  And he could have just disconnected the the actuator shafts from the foil arms and manually spun them out to retract the foil, rather than probably splicing into your wires.  If this is how they did it then I'd make sure they reconnected the wires properly. 

 

Edit - you may have to run a wedge calibration, and keep in mind that the wedge will not retract without the boat moving, or thinking its moving by someone spinning the paddlewheel while pressing the up button for the power wedge.  

Edited by Ndawg12
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I looked in the service screen, but didn't see anything about a wedge. I've also seen things that say the 2006 model doesn't have anything in the service menu, that you just have to keep running the wedge up and down until it the guage calibrates itself?

 

Also do you think I would have any problem hooking the red lead to the 30 amp power seat breaker for now?

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2 minutes ago, DaDeuce said:

I looked in the service screen, but didn't see anything about a wedge. I've also seen things that say the 2006 model doesn't have anything in the service menu, that you just have to keep running the wedge up and down until it the guage calibrates itself?

 

Also do you think I would have any problem hooking the red lead to the 30 amp power seat breaker for now?

You might look for one smaller.  Although I can't find this fuse on mine, this is what others are finding.  I'd imagine it protects the control box which I doubt is cheap to replace.  

 

fuse.jpg.5eed5daa0e56d4cbf14c5d8f42b1ec3

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The black wire (gnd) on all the switches is for the LED to function.  Sorry but I don't have a power wedge unless me "powering it up and down by hand" counts.   I am with you though...should have 12v on one side of that switch somewhere.

 

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One wire should be 12V+ and at least on should go to ground.  To run the actuators both ways you need to switch the polarity - which means that at the switch (dash or control box depending on version) there has to be a positive and a negative.  The negative is not just for the indicator lights - as on a regular switch that just interrupts the positive.  I would find where the wires from the actuators are and, after disconnecting the ends of the actuators from the wedge, apply voltage directly to the actuators and see if they are functioning.  If so, then get some temporary power to your switch (just run a wire from the battery) and see what happens.

http://s110.photobucket.com/user/tlmcgow/media/Lbs_zps184812c6.jpg.html

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Ok, did a little more digging tonight. I plugged the red power line from the wedge control box to one of the unused breakers under the throttle. I can meter power out of the control harness, however I am not able to get voltage to the switch (any of the 3 wires, blue/white/ or green). Tried with the ignition on and still no luck. This is a new wedge control box (my last one appeared to be fried).

The other thing that I noticed is that my wedge guage thinks that the wedge is still down. Could the system not be allowing anything to move because it thinks its down? (I.E. once in the fully down position does the control box cut all power to the switch until the boat is moving?). I didn't get a chance to try and meter it out while spinning the paddle wheel, so I may try to do that tonight. Also is the wedge gauge supposed to sweep on startup like the others? (It doesn't).

Anything else I am missing?

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I wonder if that means a bad gauge and that could be causing the box to not power to the switch? (I'm just speculating here, I would think that power would always be output to the switch and the control box would control whether voltage went to the actuators?)

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I wish I knew exactly how it is all linked.  I would hope that a faulty gauge wouldn't stop the entire system from operating but I don't know.  I have to rewire my switch tonight so if all goes well and mines operating correctly, I'll pull the wires to the gauge and see if that disables all functions.

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8 minutes ago, Ndawg12 said:

I wish I knew exactly how it is all linked.  I would hope that a faulty gauge wouldn't stop the entire system from operating but I don't know.  I have to rewire my switch tonight so if all goes well and mines operating correctly, I'll pull the wires to the gauge and see if that disables all functions.

And take some pictures so DaDeuce can see what wires go where.  Maybe whoever had the boat before him got some wires crossed or disconnected.

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21 hours ago, Ndawg12 said:

I just figured this out, your switch wires are correct.

I'd bet just hooking to a good known power source will get you fixed up.  Your dealer that quoted you 2k to fix is a crook.  And he could have just disconnected the the actuator shafts from the foil arms and manually spun them out to retract the foil, rather than probably splicing into your wires.  If this is how they did it then I'd make sure they reconnected the wires properly. 

 

Edit - you may have to run a wedge calibration, and keep in mind that the wedge will not retract without the boat moving, or thinking its moving by someone spinning the paddlewheel while pressing the up button for the power wedge.  

 

6 minutes ago, minnmarker said:

And take some pictures so DaDeuce can see what wires go where.  Maybe whoever had the boat before him got some wires crossed or disconnected.

In the thread I linked are the best pics I can take.  My helm is not a good example of how to cleanly run wires :blush:   

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I think the wiring itself is pretty self explanatory to me at this point. It really is a simple circuit with power coming in, grounds going out, a couple of wires for the gauge, 3 for the switch, and two pairs going out to the actuators. I really just need to understand how the system is supposed to function over all at this point I think, because right now I believe I am getting good power in, but no power out.

 

Ndawg, does your gauge swipe if the wedge control box is unhooked?

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So did some more Mcguyvering..... On a whim I hooked up the old control board (the one I thought was bad because of a smoke mark on the circuit board) and Wala! Voltage to the switch! I was getting around 8-10 volts to the center white, but I was also getting some voltage to the blue and the green wires too (just under 6 volts). 

 

ndawg, what kind of voltage were you seeing at your switch?

Edited by DaDeuce
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12 hours ago, DaDeuce said:

So did some more Mcguyvering..... On a whim I hooked up the old control board (the one I thought was bad because of a smoke mark on the circuit board) and Wala! Voltage to the switch! I was getting around 8-10 volts to the center white, but I was also getting some voltage to the blue and the green wires too (just under 6 volts). 

 

ndawg, what kind of voltage were you seeing at your switch?

I never checked but I can this weekend.

16 hours ago, DaDeuce said:

I think the wiring itself is pretty self explanatory to me at this point. It really is a simple circuit with power coming in, grounds going out, a couple of wires for the gauge, 3 for the switch, and two pairs going out to the actuators. I really just need to understand how the system is supposed to function over all at this point I think, because right now I believe I am getting good power in, but no power out.

 

Ndawg, does your gauge swipe if the wedge control box is unhooked?

I never checked but I can this weekend.

 

FWIW, I did verify last night that the wedge will still operate with the gauge disconnected.

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Forgot to mention as well, the wedge gauge swipes and moves to 1/4 of the way up with the old box. I wonder if the new control box is actually a different model than the one I had installed on there? Is there any way to actually test the actuators to make sure they are bad before I pull them off?

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14 minutes ago, DaDeuce said:

 Is there any way to actually test the actuators to make sure they are bad before I pull them off?

Take out the bolts on one end of both actuators - probably the narrow end - then find where the actuator leads plug into the control box and disconnect them.  Apply 12v to the leads.  Switch polarity.  One way they should get shorter.  The other way they should get longer.

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Or take them off completely so that they're hanging from the leads entering the transom, remove cap nuts (either hex or torx), carefully wiggle cap off, drain all the water that is certainly in your 10 year old actuators, unhook leads to leads to completely remove cap, and hook to 12v to test.

 

P1030724.jpg

 

P1030719.jpg

Edited by Ndawg12
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I'll definitely be doing that this week to see if I have power out there. In the mean time Andrew at Bakes has helped me locate the wiring diagrams for the 2006 and 2007 harnesses and they are definitely different, so I may need to re-wire my harness or find a different control box. I posted in the main forum, hopefully someone can point me in the direct of the correct part number that should be on my boat (or a wiring diagram for the pin out of the control box).

Edited by DaDeuce
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  • 2 weeks later...

So a little update. I've determined that my actuators were bad for sure, but I still can't get any voltage to them from the control module/rocker switch. I've got a replacement box that supposedly works, however when it is installed I get no voltage to the switches at all. When I put the original box back in, I get voltage to the switch, however I get 4.9 volts to the green common and 7.1 volts each to the white down and blue up (all this without depressing anything on the switch). When pressing the switch voltages do not seem to change. Does this sound right to anyone? All the other switches I have been able to meter have 12 volts to the common and nothing to the "action" wire until the switch is depressed. I'm getting to the point where I want to hard wire the SOB and by pass the box completely. I know I loose the "safety" of only raising the wedge while moving, but I just want this thing to work!

is it possible that the new box I bought is bad?

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Does your dealer have any 06's he'll let you crawl around in?  That's how I figured out mine, my buddy has an 07 23lsv.  I'll try to get these voltage measurements next time I'm at my boat but it may be a while.

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2 hours ago, Ndawg12 said:

Does your dealer have any 06's he'll let you crawl around in?  That's how I figured out mine, my buddy has an 07 23lsv.  I'll try to get these voltage measurements next time I'm at my boat but it may be a while.

Unfortunately no. Oldest boat I can find around me is a 2009 and its not at my local dealer. I ended up looking at it some more last night, I think I am just going to hard wire it and use a push button to make the up function a 2 handed operation for now. Looks like the wires will be easy to chase and terminate. I am curious to know how the gauge works, does it just time how long the button is depressed and move accordingly? The Actuators themselves only have 2 wires (power and ground) so I don't think it is actually getting a rough position signal out.

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Quick update for everyone. I hardwired the new actuators this weekend with great success. I'm pulling power from the 30 amp heater breaker (I Don't have one in my boat) and ground from the ground rail right underneath the helm. I ran 2 new 18 guage wires from the cockpit to the transom where I Y'ed them into the new actuator wires. I then tied these directly into the existing power wedge switch for the down and then jumper-ed the wires to reverse polarity for the up with an added push button for safety. Fired it up and it worked like a champ all weekend! I still have some cleanup to do (properly bundling the wires and mounting my push button permanently) but this is a great halfway fix to get it functioning again.

 

This does eliminate some of the builtin safety of the speed control of the Malibu design, but the push button is small and will be mounted out of the way to where only people I trust to drive the boat will know where it is. I'm going to get some better pictures of the finished product next weekend and probably do a write up.

 

Now if I can just figure out how to get the gauge to work with this setup!!!!!

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I don't want to be debbie downer, but i think 18awg is pretty light to carry the load for two actuators.  For a 20' extension, the lenco cable is 14awg for a single actuator: http://www.lencomarine.com/index.php/products/lenco-accessories/item/actuator-extension-harnesses so for two actuators you'd want to double the copper.  I think I'd do 10awg if it were me.  Maybe 12 if I were feeling lucky.  But definitely not 18, even for one.

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I would generally agree with you, however you might want to check the wires going to the harness for the wedge control box. I do have an older 2006, but the ground was (1) 16 or 18 guage wire y'ed into 2 the 2 ground inputs on the box, and the same for the power (1 wire y'ed into 2). I'll double check when I get back to the boat this week, but I feel like the old actuators I pulled off had very thin gauge wire on them as well.

*Edit*

The actuators definitely didn't seem to have any trouble moving, other than them potentially moving too slowly what are the risks here? Also this is why I have a mechanical engineering degree and not electrical!!!!

 

Also the good thing about this mod is we completed the entire thing (save the removal of the actuators themselves) in about 2 hours.

Edited by DaDeuce
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