Everything on the helm is dead.

[Harper]

All right, time to brainstorm this one. I've been on this forum for a long time. I've had my boat (a 20' Triumph center console) with the DF150 for 14 years, and never had a problem of a dead helm. I know all about the white wire and fuse and that it will kill all power to the helm, etc. Here's the rub ..... I never paid much attention to it before, so what I always saw as the "white wire" is not white at all. What comes off the battery (or in my case the battery switch) is a light green with a red tracer. It has a 7.5A fuse, that is good (as is every other fuse I can find), and it does NOT go where a white wire would go, at least not anywhere up in the helm area. It appears that it goes under the deck, so I assume it heads back to the motor. But it's not connected anywhere up at the helm. In other words, it's a rogue wire that is not on the Suzuki wiring diagram. I've unplugged the ignition/start switch with the kill switch (all on one plate on my boat, installed in the dash). Pulled that wire set and checked everything. It has checked out good. Whatever caused the sudden failure of power at the helm is not related to that. It happened suddenly. It was in the night. I had been anchored, weighed anchor and went to start the engine and "nothing." When I turned the switch to "on" there was not any power at all, and of course, no starter. As I kept trying to start the engine, the boat drifted into the shipping channel. I'm just damned lucky that no tankers showed up at 10 o'clock at night. There's a lesson there. Anyway, ended up having to call for a tow. Strange case .... I'm still looking. The thing is, this white wire/no white wire thing didn't matter until now. So that really isn't likely to be the source of the problem. However it's wired, it always worked before. I'm just itchin' to know how the Triumph boat manufacturer wired this thing up. Everything on the house battery (lights, radio, chartplotter, etc.) works fine. Both batteries are in top shape and connections good. I still have to check for voltages along the lines, so that's where I'm headed with it now.

[Harper]

In thinking this through a bit, I think the light green/red wire is probably a wire to something else on the boat, unrelated to the motor. I'll check that in the morning. So I have yet to find where the white wire is connected to the positive buss.

[Moonlighter]

White wire should be connected either directly to the starting battery or the main battery switch.

Some installers had a very bad practice of connecting it to the + terminal on the starter motor.

Those are the places to look for it.

Are you absolutely certain that nothing drained the starting battery while the boat was anchored up??

Are your batteries separated by a VSR arrangement?

[Solarman]

I think I'd start looking at the main battery isolation switch, after 14 years that would seem most susceptible area, they don't last forever? And can get corroded after such time.

Good luck. Post back on what you find out.

[Harper]

Occured to me last nght as I was trying to fall asleep, that the main battery cable from the center console, where the batteries are, to the stern (a huge cable, of course) terminates at another positive wire buss. And if I recall after all these years, they attached the white wire there. Then the power to the console is backfed through the white wire in the harness. I've been out all day, and hope tomorrow to remove a 1x1ft panel secured by 8 screws at the stern, where I think the wire is. I'll post back tomorrow on what I find.

[Harper]

Got into the stern a little before dark last night. So here's the white wire.
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And is this a fuse?

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If I can get a break in the rain, I'll find out today.

There are two relays back there, too. A couple huge mud wasp nests made a mess back here, too, so I need to clean that up. I have no idea how they get in there. But judging from the mess I'm pretty sure it's the source of my problem. Pretty lousy design to have this much buried back here behind a panel where it's not readily accessible.

[Harper]

Yes, indeed!! One blown 15A fuse!

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Now the cleanup begins!!

[Murray]

I feel your pain. If I ever buy another outboard hull I’ll be checking the back end of the boat for access first and foremost. Glad you got it sorted out.

[Harper]

I'm now in the process of splicing a section of fused white wire under the console from the white wire terminal of the ignition switch to the main battery switch. I'll be removing the fuse from where it's now located on the white wire in that stern compartment and splice that connection. Then the white wire from helm to motor will serve its other intended function of providing unfettered power to the ECM relay. The way it's wired now is essentially the same as Moonlighter's example of connecting it to the +terminal on the starter motor.

[artdf175]

there was one thing that I did
the white wire the way it was wired off the battery the ECM was constantly powered . So I put in a second smaller batt switch the isolates that wire from everything...

And sorry to hear you were having problems..
Art