244 sunesta Gauges

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Mgoblue297

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Made the jump hoping to find some help. I have a 2009 244 sunesta. My dash gauges all stopped working. There is a long beep, tach is stuck at 5200 but the boat runs fine. GPS works fine but none of the gauges are showing anything. I keep thinking of maybe trying to convert to a glass display. Like 2 7 or 9 inch displays one GPS and the other vessel view or something. Any ideas on with what is wrong or if the upgrade is possible or worth it.
 
Since none of the gauges are working then I would think it could be a power or grounding problem.

To diagnose you need to turn on the key and make sure the first gauge in the string has +12 volts on the "I" (ignitiion) terminal. Which is the first gauge in the string? That would likely be the one closest to the ignition switch. If the first gauge has power, but doesn't work, then make sure it has a ground connection. Hope this helps.

As for upgrading to a screen, I had one last year and did not care for it. I much prefer individual gauges, but that's just me.
 
Doc said:
Since none of the gauges are working then I would think it could be a power or grounding problem.

To diagnose you need to turn on the key and make sure the first gauge in the string has +12 volts on the "I" (ignitiion) terminal. Which is the first gauge in the string? That would likely be the one closest to the ignition switch. If the first gauge has power, but doesn't work, then make sure it has a ground connection. Hope this helps.

As for upgrading to a screen, I had one last year and did not care for it. I much prefer individual gauges, but that's just me.
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Thank you for the advise. brought it to a dealer to have it checked out. I dont like taking chances with it when my kids are with me. So I am sure i just spent another$$$$. Thanks for the input and I will share and see what they find. I also did just order vessel view mobile
 
Mgoblue297 said:
Made the jump hoping to find some help. I have a 2009 244 sunesta. My dash gauges all stopped working. There is a long beep, tach is stuck at 5200 but the boat runs fine. GPS works fine but none of the gauges are showing anything. I keep thinking of maybe trying to convert to a glass display. Like 2 7 or 9 inch displays one GPS and the other vessel view or something. Any ideas on with what is wrong or if the upgrade is possible or worth it.
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Hi, Mgoblue297,

I'm having similar problems. Let me know how that all worked out for you.
2004 Sunesta 252
 
Mgoblue297 said:
Made the jump hoping to find some help. I have a 2009 244 sunesta. My dash gauges all stopped working. There is a long beep, tach is stuck at 5200 but the boat runs fine. GPS works fine but none of the gauges are showing anything. I keep thinking of maybe trying to convert to a glass display. Like 2 7 or 9 inch displays one GPS and the other vessel view or something. Any ideas on with what is wrong or if the upgrade is possible or worth it.
Click to expand...
Your gauge package all slave off of the tach. I'd start there looking for power, ground, and signal cable from EMC which has a connector at the rear of the engine. W
 
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WIngnut said:
Your gauge package all slave off of the tach. I'd start there looking for power, ground, and signal cable from EMC which has a connector at the rear of the engine. W
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Good Morning, Wingnut,
Great to hear from you!
As always, your comments are very informative, and will help me find the right direction to take.
The main problem is the tach itself, which is very erratic. I'm not sure the trim indicator is working very well, either. No telling what else will fail.
You mention the EMC at the rear of the engine. I purchased a Vessel View at the end of last season, but I'm waiting for this season to start, before I connect it. Is the EMC the same place where I will install the cable for the Vessel View?
I'm thinking that the Vessel View will allow me to get more detailed, accurate information, and completely bypass all the gauges.
 
LAKETIME said:
Good Morning, Wingnut,
Great to hear from you!
As always, your comments are very informative, and will help me find the right direction to take.
The main problem is the tach itself, which is very erratic. I'm not sure the trim indicator is working very well, either. No telling what else will fail.
You mention the EMC at the rear of the engine. I purchased a Vessel View at the end of last season, but I'm waiting for this season to start, before I connect it. Is the EMC the same place where I will install the cable for the Vessel View?
I'm thinking that the Vessel View will allow me to get more detailed, accurate information, and completely bypass all the gauges.
Click to expand...
The trim indicator is a stand alone harness and my guess there is the sender is failing. The Vessel View harness plugs into the diougnostic port with a Y pigtail, and a termination resistor, but that harness is close to the harness plug that goes up to the helm. The engine harness cannon plug has a hose clamp on it, and I have separated that plug to find that one or more of the pins were not in contact, so thats a starting point. Some boats have a distribution module block mounted up in the gunnel about 2/3rds of the way to the helm, but I have never seen one of them fail, but I think I remember someone commenting that they have had an issue with that module. My guess is your Tach head unit is bad. If so, I have a spare I can loan you for testing as long as your ride is a Merc. Volvo's look the same but are a different part number. W
 
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Wingnut,

I have a Merc 350 Mag Bravo 3 (I haven't succeeded in getting that into my profile yet ;-/).

It looks like I have my diagnostic work cut out for me!
I have manuals for the engine and the outdrive, if you think I could benefit from them.

-You said:"The trim indicator...sender is failing." Would that be located on the outdrive?
-You said: "The engine harness cannon plug...that's a starting point." Is this related to the tach? Is this found on the front of the engine?
-You said: "distribution module block mounted up in the gunnel about 2/3rds of the way to the helm" If I recall, that was something that I could have ordered from Mercruiser when I ordered the Vessel View and the cable that will go from the engine to the helm. I think it was something that would allow multiple devices to utilize the cable.
Although I could be accused of being the type that just throws parts at a problem, and assuming the tach replacement doesn't cost a king's ransom, I'm probably going to buy a new tach if there is a high probability that it's gone bad, rather than borrow one. I appreciate the offer to loan one to me. :cool:
Just wondering...where would you recommend that I buy a new tach?
I'm looking forward to installing the Vessel View. It sounds like a great upgrade...
 
LAKETIME said:
Wingnut,

I have a Merc 350 Mag Bravo 3 (I haven't succeeded in getting that into my profile yet ;-/).

It looks like I have my diagnostic work cut out for me!
I have manuals for the engine and the outdrive, if you think I could benefit from them.

-You said:"The trim indicator...sender is failing." Would that be located on the outdrive?
-You said: "The engine harness cannon plug...that's a starting point." Is this related to the tach? Is this found on the front of the engine?
-You said: "distribution module block mounted up in the gunnel about 2/3rds of the way to the helm" If I recall, that was something that I could have ordered from Mercruiser when I ordered the Vessel View and the cable that will go from the engine to the helm. I think it was something that would allow multiple devices to utilize the cable.
Although I could be accused of being the type that just throws parts at a problem, and assuming the tach replacement doesn't cost a king's ransom, I'm probably going to buy a new tach if there is a high probability that it's gone bad, rather than borrow one. I appreciate the offer to loan one to me. :cool:
Just wondering...where would you recommend that I buy a new tach?
I'm looking forward to installing the Vessel View. It sounds like a great upgrade...
Click to expand...
The square replacement tachs were $1,200 when they were available, but I have not seen one offered anywhere for some time now. On a 2009, you may have a 2 wire trim indicator sender on the starboard side of the drive at the piviot point, and a 3 wire didgital trim limit sender on the port side. The replacement will be a single "dual function" 3 wire sender on the port side, and a dummy plastic plug for the starboard. A trim calibration is necessary after installation, and the common mechanism of failure is water infiltration into the sender cables. The engine harness plug carries all control and data cables to the helm and is a round plug typically located toward the rear of the engine, starboard side. By tracing the harness forward, you will be able to determine if your ride has the distribution module.
 
When I had my Sig 290, twin engine my tech broke. To find out the the square techs use 4 wires from the 2 motors. Rather replacing the tech, I tapped into the harness using a Yacht Devise gateway. In other words, from J1939 to NMEA 2000 protocol. Cost was $160.00 and 10 minutes of work. I than used my GPS to display the data. The data that I could read was more info than my helm could. At $1200-160 left me is a big savings or take what you would have spent on a 2nd MFD/GPS. At the time I had two Garmin 7" MFDs displaying chartplotter, radar and fish-finder info. But in each corner of the screens I had engine data. The screens can be customized and the prices of since dropped.

FYI, this can only be done (as far as I know) with the square gauges since there digital.
 
Iggy said:
When I had my Sig 290, twin engine my tech broke. To find out the the square techs use 4 wires from the 2 motors. Rather replacing the tech, I tapped into the harness using a Yacht Devise gateway. In other words, from J1939 to NMEA 2000 protocol. Cost was $160.00 and 10 minutes of work. I than used my GPS to display the data. The data that I could read was more info than my helm could. At $1200-160 left me is a big savings or take what you would have spent on a 2nd MFD/GPS. At the time I had two Garmin 7" MFDs displaying chartplotter, radar and fish-finder info. But in each corner of the screens I had engine data. The screens can be customized and the prices of since dropped.

FYI, this can only be done (as far as I know) with the square gauges since there digital.
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Merc went to digital gauges in 2008 and the square ones were the first iteration. I suspect MGO has failed the tach and may end up doing exactly what you recomended. The square units are just getting so hard to find. W
 
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