'06 Sunscape Speedo/Depth Help!

[fencelake]

New to me boat...

Was having intermittent depth gauge issues (erratic readings - malibu computer display saying bad depth etc)

Now after always working very well, while on the lake - my speedo stopped working, will not read off of 0.

Everything appears to be connected.  I don't see any fuses blown?

Any help you all can give me to troubleshoot would be much appreciated....

Thanks! 

[kylesullens]

I have the same boat.  The speedo has a spinner wheel on the bottom of the boat.  I have to lubricate the wheel once or twice a year to get reliable readings from the speedo.  I use lithium grease or something similar.

are the other gauges in the cluster having odd behavior as well?  If no, I would check the leads on the depth finder to make sure you don't have a bad connection.

 

[Eagleboy99]

You might have to replace the paddlewheel.  Airmar is the brand.  Frankly, I'd dump it and put in a GPS speedo for like 8o bucks.

[fencelake]

Thanks for the reply, when I pull the boat out I will check the paddle wheel and lube.  No other issues with gauges except for depth finder.  It's just odd to me that both have failed...could it be a power issue? If so anyone know how I'd troubleshoot?  I pulled the connection off the depth finder unit and reattached, it seems ok.  I did the same at the speedometer connection.

Agree with the comment on gps...but I'm not sure if it would work right now given my situation...seems like I have something to fix first?

 

 

[Eagleboy99]

http://www.airmar.com/uploads/InstallGuide/17-285-01.pdf

 

[fencelake]

Does anyone know how I could test to make sure that I am getting 12V power to the paddlewheel?

[justgary]

2 hours ago, fencelake said:

Does anyone know how I could test to make sure that I am getting 12V power to the paddlewheel?

The paddle wheel has a magnet in it.  The pickup is probably a hall effect device, and I would guess that it doesn't have 12v going to it.  Do you get a speed reading when you spin the wheel? 

[csleaver]

The paddle wheel harness plug has 4 wires: purple, black, grey, and green.  The purple wire powers the paddle wheel from the switched ignition circuit.  With the key on the purple wire should be close to battery voltage.  If you slowly turn the paddle wheel, the green wire should read 8-12 vdc, then 0 vdc, then 8-12 vdc, then 0 vdc, and so on if it is working.  Also check that the black wire has very low resistance to battery ground.

[fencelake]

Thanks for all the tips.  What an awesome resource this forum is!!

I was able to pull the boat out today and what I found was the fin on the Airmar unit was bent and not allowing the paddle wheel to spin.  I bent this back out - problem solved!  

This happened from putting the boat on the trailer - there is very little margin for error, as the paddle wheel is VERY close to a bunk with the boat perfectly centered.  I will certainly be watching out for this...

Now I need to figure out the depth finder.  I'll scour older posts first.