Searay 40 temporary loss of guage data, syncronizer affected

[chuck young]

Tony and Corey or others,
Thanks again for the help last year advising me to install the Cummins adapter harness which eliminated those ghost error codes.

By the way, Boatdiesel would not post my thank you to you guys several months ago.

Here is a new problem I hope you or someone else on the forum can help with. First my boat: 2006 Searay 40 dancer. Twin cummins qsb 380 5.9. Ser.46524871 and 46525394. Vessel view software ver.4.0.0.20.

Yesterday, I noticed a wandering analog tach. It was very brief. By the time my brain tuned in I could not tell if both tacks, and or VV tach readings wandered. It was fine for the rest of the short ride.

Today running around 2200 rpms I noticed the port analog tach wandering, immediately I lost all readings on guages and vv for the starb engine although the engines were runing. Additionally at this same time I had been running with the sync engaged. There was an eratic effect on RPMs so I came to idle and neutral. I was unable to get the sync to turn off. Finally, I shut down the engines and restarted. Sync was then off, guages and vv were normal. Ran the rest of way home 20 minutes at varying speeds and all OK. Never saw any error codes. Checked vv history and no error codes active or past. Note I had reset the vv when I installed the cummins adapter harness over a year ago. Im thinking the syncronizer malfunction is the result of the data loss, and if so, why the data loss?
I would appreciate any guidance you could provide as we are booked for an extended Chesapeake trip in a couple weeks.

Topic

[Corey Schmidt]

SmartCraft Gremlin…

The SmartCraft gremlin never sleeps but you can keep him at bay with a clean and dry engine room, good tight & greased harness connections, and a little good luck on your side…

[chuck young]

Cleaned connections

Corey I cleaned and excersized all connections coming from the engine harness, to all connections to VV and J boxes, connection at multiplex and all to the guages. The only one i didnt do was the medusa connector to the engine. To do that one I would need to do quite a bit of dismanteling. Results look good, ran a couple hours without using the sync and no problems. Then I switched on the sync and varied speeds for about a half hour with no problems. Im hoping I got it so I’m cautiously optomistic. There was one harness connector near the engine, not sure what it was connected to that at didnt seem to be locked. Maybe that was it. Had to work nearly blind due to layout of
outboard engine side and now have arms of different length.
Hope I got it, or is the gremlin tormenting me?

[Corey Schmidt]

Multiplex module

The C-Cruise functionality is handled by the Motorola Smart Multiplex Module… it would be a good idea to pull that connector and clean it thoroughly…

[chuck young]

Thanks

I’ll give that a try. Does the engine synchronizer/ cruise/slow idle system get its data parallel with the VV, or from the VV?
I Appreciate your input with this new gremlin. Hope for another successful conclusion.

[chuck young]

PHOTO GROUP 2 OF 2

Very difficult to get any good photos of stb engine port side.

[Corey Schmidt]

Cleaning the connections

I always say that before you troubleshoot “SmartCrap” issues, you MUST go through and clean ALL of the harness connections with some di-electric grease and a toothbrush… many times this eliminates some of the wierd intermintant issues. If that doesnt do it, we’ll have to go about it very methodically…

Let’s start there and see what happens… especially for DATA LOSS situations

[chuck young]

photo group 1 of 2

Thank you for the reply Tony
I was not able to duplicate the problem yet. The last time it happened was after about over an hour of cruising.
In the meantime, I am attaching several photos as requested. Will send additional photos next due to file limitation.
Hopefully, they will lend some insight for some more digging.

[Tony Athens]

Take a video of what is going on & send it my way.. I want to see the entire helm station too……Be sure and keep the camera steady……..

I’d also like a few good pics of the ECM side of the engine similar to the attached.. Close & a couple a few away

Tony

[chuck young]

Thanks for the reply.
When the tach wandered briefly yesterday there was no effect, however I dont remember if I had the sync on.
Today, it did have an effect on the revs and became eratic and I quickly throttled down. I was able to proceed at about 1000 rpm both engines running steady but couldnt deactivate the sync and no readings on the stb guages or vv. When I was closer to home and in open water I shut down and restarted to normal running.

[Rob Schepis]

Are the engine rpm’s actually effected or are the engines staying steady and only the gauge readings are jumping around ?

[Author]

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