Cummins 4BTA instrument issues

[Robert Turnbull]

I have a 2002 CC28 with twin Cummins 4BTAs. I purchased the boat with the starboard tach and temp gauges non-functional. The port temp gauge is not reading either. I chased the wires back though the harness to the engine and found some melted ground wires in the bundle on the way through the conduit.  This happened prior to taking ownership and the surveyor totally missed it. I’ve bypassed the damaged wire and re-spliced the connections. The gauges on the starboard side are still unresponsive until after I run the boat on plane for several minutes the needles on the tach and temp will start to bounce around. The tach will only read 50% of actual and the temp sensor will peg out. After idling the gauges will drop back to zero again. Is there a module on the engine that may be damaged that could be causing this? Also of note the engine alarms have never gone off, even during startup they’re silent. Hopefully one of you has some info that would point me where to look next. The lack of reliable temp readings is suicide… 

 

Thanks,

 

Rob  

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[Rob Schepis]

Wow, the surveyor missed non-functioning gauges, even the most cursory surveyors have those checkboxes on their clipboard.  Lots of electrical issues going on, makes you wonder if the boat was damaged at one time or just neglected over the years… As a start, since you have a twin setup, you can switch gauges between P&S and see if the issues stay or move.  

[Tony Athens]

Without good pictures of all you are talking about, it’s really impossible figure out anything.. Too many possibilities as to what gauges you have , and then add that to 30 years of Marine Age — I ‘d just guess you’ll be starting from close to scratch to gauge and wire your engines safely.. We don’t even know if you have  Cummins factory supplied gauges or boat builder/OEM stuff..

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