Cummins gauge

[William Walter]

I took my stbd gauge out over the winter to look into repair for burnt out backlight and some screen burn.finding out it was unrepairable and the cost to replace I decided to live with it.after reinstall it system test ok but where I use to show numbers such as volts it just shows dashes.i haven’t a manual for the unit and was wondering if there was a reset.only trouble shooting I’ve done so far is to reset plug and make sure wires were secure going into plug.

Topic

[Rob Schepis]

Experience…

Bill, I always say “Experience is the best experience..”  You hung in there, dug deeper and problem solved.  Sounds just right to me.

[William Walter]

Gauge

corey thx for reply. Somewhat embarrassing to admit your mistakes but I have learned that I’ve always learned more from my mistakes than my successes.i was able to get into the electrical system and learned a lot from that.Bill

[Corey Schmidt]

Great news!

It’s always nice when it’s something “silly” —- nothing worse than pulling ECMs off of engines!

[Rob Schepis]

Bill you’ve had a “full plate” productive offseason of improving and learning your new boat.  Some guys never even see the boat all winter, as you can attest from the ghost town atmosphere at the boat yard the last few months.  See ya on the water (probably sooner)……

[Tony Athens]

Glad it all worked out..

 

Tony

[William Walter]

Problem fixed

first off let me thank Rob Tony and Corey for their great advice.Yes Corey it was something silly.I went to boat and went straight to the four fuses you talked about hoping one was burnt but they were all fine.While I was there I pulled back the red boot for the terminal and saw that up in the boot was one wire that had not been reattached to the post.i had taken batteries out over winter to load test and missed that one wire.went to helm turned key had data turned key started on second try.Boat ran great and I took her for a spin to check prop work I had done.ill post those results on that thread.thx bill

[William Walter]

Starting

Corey I looked at wiring diagram and also found this picture of starting bank. I think you’re right the first thing I’ll Ck are the two ten amp fuses coming from batteries.it would make sense that one of these fuses are popped with the symptoms I have.Bill

[William Walter]

Gauge

ok will Ck on that also tomorrow .thx for info.Bill

[Corey Schmidt]

ECM Power

Let’s also make sure you’re getting power to the ECM… without it —- you will not be able to start anything (although you can still CRANK the engine).

On the bundle of wires hanging down from the engine, you’ll see a 4-PIN large power connector (2 RED & 2 YELLOW ~10 AWG) wires. BOTH of the 2 RED leads will be fused right near the battery — let’s make sure these fuses are in really good shape so that the ECM has power.

[William Walter]

Gauge

Corey i will take a picture of my display plug next time I get to boat.in the mean time let me tell you what I have done.i downloaded electrical schematic so I could trace wires for the 1708 signal.i first cleaned the 02 and 01 plug going into ecm .i concentrated on pin 49 and 50 on the 02 plug.i then went to the 40 pin connector and concentrated on the 01 and 02 pins.at the display unit I disconnected and reinserted the curled data wires with the screws.i then reversed them as you stated just for grins.no luck.i then put them back to original position.i put boat in water and tried starting engine.i had low voltage on my starting batteries so I tried to start using crossover.i knew I needed batteries so I put 3 new batteries in.with new batteries engine cranks great but will not start still.i will look at all fuses and breakers on engine.is there any sensor that would shut down ecm such as a crank sensor.over winter I did work on tensioner pulley and belt aftercoolers and heat exchanger.thanks Bill

[Corey Schmidt]

Let’s try this again…

1. We need to make sure the twisted pair DATA wires are connected correctly on the back of the display. Can you send me a clear picture of the long green connector on the back of the display with the (4) wires connected? You will want to swap wires 3&4 as they are NOT color coded. This MAY fix your issue… if it doesnt fix the issue we may need to look at the ECM as the possible culprit and swapping the ECM units could be a way to flush that out… 
2. Have you checked all of the fuses on the engine and near the cranking batteries?
3. Have you assessed and cleaned any of the harnessing and connection points with di-electric? 
4. 

[William Walter]

Engine starting

I put boat in water this week and was able to try to start my stbd engine after the winter and the issue with no data to my stbd gauge.so far it won’t start and doesn’t sound like it’s going to.lack of fuel or something.port engine took a while to get going but I was able to get it started after awhile.ran perfect and no leaks after all the work I did .im starting to think something is up with ecm.not sure if there is a good way to Ck it without test equipment but was thinking of swapping ecm s .any downside to that.is it a lot to do or would you take a different approach.bill

[William Walter]

Gauge

rob impellers are still in.i plan to put boat in around 21 mar.everthing is done from rubrail down.i plan to run engines at that time.in the mean time I’ll remove and clean harness .are you thinking starting engine may somehow bring signal back to life.bill
new underwater lights and props reinstalled.

[Rob Schepis]

Gotcha on the displays, I wasn’t 100% understanding the swap test result on your prior post.   Well checking, reconnecting and cleaning everything would not be wasted time if you cannot pinpoint what is what ahead of time.  Can you fire the engines?  Are your impellers in or out?

[William Walter]

Gauge

Rob I’m 100 percent sure the gauge is not the problem as I took the stbd and put it in the port position and it worked fine.after putting the port gauge in the stbd position it had the same issue as the original stbd gauge did.there are 4 wires going into the back of the gauge.2 power and 2 data.oviously the power works but the data signal is not .i guess my next step is to find where those wires enter the ecm and Ck for damage or corrosion.if that’s not the problem I wonder if ecm is not sending data for some reason.not sure how I would Ck that.bill

[Rob Schepis]

Hello Bill.  So the issue did or did not follow the gauge?  Corey’s troubleshooting post above gives further suggestions beyond simply a failed display.

[Corey Schmidt]

First, disconnect and re-connect the harness and engine connections and clean thoroughly with some di-electric and a toothbrush… see if that fixes the issue. Be sure to inspect the pins and make sure nothing silly happened…

[William Walter]

Gauge

Corey went to boat today and swapped gauges.stbd worked fine in port position and port had same indications as stbd in that position.since everything was working fine before I did all the engine work and removed the gauge I feel it’s related to something I did and not a corrosion problem.im thinking it’s a loose wire or perhaps the ecm is not sending the information for some reason.the ecm did lose all power when I disconnected the batteries to load test them.any suggestions bill 

[Corey Schmidt]

Troubleshooting…

Probably a good idea to swap the panels to first eliminate the possibility of a bad gauge. Then, if the issue does not follow the panel, you may want to disconnect and re-connect the harness and engine connections and clean thoroughly with some di-electric and a toothbrush. If that does not fix the issue, I would download a wiring diagram for the engine and locate the (2) specific wires that transmit the data and make sure they’re in good shape physically and that they are connected well…

[Rob Schepis]

Cummins Marine 6CTA 480CE ECM

[Author]

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