Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

This 96 Sweetwater I just bought has no gauges, trouble indicators, tach, speedo. ..nothing. the fish finder tells me my speed.
The service manual has info about the electronics compatible with my 2000 Johnson 40 but I'm not sure what info fits since the manual covers EVERYTHING. The manual makes it sounds like the motor comes with a tach that interfaces with the diagnostic system. No holes in my console--looks like everything was intended to be an option.

Should i add any indicators? Not a performance boat--just used for easy cruising.
Are there aftermarket gauges that work with the Johnson system?

I like gauges but a tach and volt-meter is about all you really need and the volt-meter is really optional...

Mark,

Ours came with four gauges: Tach, fuel, volts and trim/tilt. Probably the most important gauge (to me) is the tach with Systems Check. There are tachs that work with Johnson/Evinrude that offer this. I think the earliest year is 1996, but I'm not 100% sure. I know it works with our 1999 Johnson. The tach can look similar to this:
You can also get just the Systems Check gauge without the tach. Other gauges are important, too, but I like to think I would like to get a warning if the oil pump stopped working or oil reservoir was getting low. I have checked the oil getting low alarm by operating with a spare gallon of oil riding along until the warning buzzer went off. Of course, I watched the oil tank to make sure it wasn't completely out.

Thanks Paul--you got me thinking again!
Prices on those aren't as bad as I assumed.

teecro wrote:I like gauges but a tach and volt-meter is about all you really need and the volt-meter is really optional...

Cheers to this. Tach is important, voltage is important. If your engine is also a 96 you'll really want the "system check" gauge. It's what makes the BEEP when you click the key over and tells you that you're not overheating, not out of oil, not low on oil and includes the "idiot" light.

Check behind your dash you should have a rectangular grey plug with I believe 8 or 12 inputs.

If you have it PM me, I may have an extra stand alone system check in the garage.

JerEazy wrote:

teecro wrote:...

Check behind your dash you should have a rectangular grey plug with I believe 8 or 12 inputs.

...

I'll look into it this weekend but if memory serves I noticed a chopped multi-conductor cable in my console

Another project...

guy48065 wrote:

JerEazy wrote:

teecro wrote:...

Check behind your dash you should have a rectangular grey plug with I believe 8 or 12 inputs.

...

I'll look into it this weekend but if memory serves I noticed a chopped multi-conductor cable in my console

Another project...

Sorry - I just re-read your post - you have a 2000 Johnson, you are definitely in the system check era

you can buy the replacement connector online (here yah go - found one for you https://www.marineengine.com/newparts/p ... OMC0176296 ) and hook it back together if the previous owner went lumberjack on everything. Luckily (or hopefully) it's all color coded - if the colors on your replacement don't match what you have under the dash, I added the coding below.

Or if you don't feel like playing splice and dice you can buy a whole new harness for ~ $140 and re run it all from the engine back up under the console to tach, system check, and trim gauges https://www.marineengine.com/newparts/p ... OMC0176340

They can be a little pricey (but sometimes you can find them on e-bay) where the system check and the tach are all in one (like urbnsr posted above). Just plug the deutsch connector into the back of the tach and it reads RPMs and monitors the system at the same time.

here's the pin configuration (looking at the back-side of the system check gauge or the multi-function Tach, holding it upright)

1-2-3-4
8-7-6-5

So if you want to use an aftermarket tach you would need to set the little selector switch on the back it to 6 and connect it as follows:


Purple wire goes to pin 1- or you would connect to the 12V connection on aftermarket
Black wire goes to pin 2- or connect to the grnd of aftermarket
Gray wire goes to pin 3 - or connect to the PUL of aftermarket tach

The other wire coloring for warning system is

Pin 4, no oil lite - tan/yellow
Pin 5, low oil lite - tan/black
Pin 7, engine lite - tan/orange
Pin 6, hot lite - tan

Pin 8, is used to activate the warning horn, it supplies a ground to the horn circuit when any other warning circuit (pins 4 thru 7) is grounded - tan/blue wire

Enjoy and good luck!

Wow--awesome help JerEazy! Shot that one to the printer to take with me next trip to the cottage (this weekend hopefully).

So I started out looking at the System Check gauge only. About $30. Then found some tachs that included the indicators...about $70 & this seemed like a nice upgrade for not a lot extra $. Well then found the volt & trim gauges for pretty cheap...so here I go throwing money at it. I don't HAVE to have any but the dash looks so empty & boring right now.

guy48065 wrote:Wow--awesome help JerEazy! Shot that one to the printer to take with me next trip to the cottage (this weekend hopefully).

So I started out looking at the System Check gauge only. About $30. Then found some tachs that included the indicators...about $70 & this seemed like a nice upgrade for not a lot extra $. Well then found the volt & trim gauges for pretty cheap...so here I go throwing money at it. I don't HAVE to have any but the dash looks so empty & boring right now.

Be happy you get to start from scratch! The previous owner of my toon had a different gauge for everything except the trim and they were all different styles and colors .

He also said "Why not?" drilled holes and added an Aux Jack, a USB jack, a volume control knob, and a switch for the head unit.

Looks like Frankenstein's gauge cluster.

Anyway, take some pics of how it turns out! And as a side note (just cause i'm silly like this) think about adding a BusBar for the grounds on all the gauges. And, maybe another bar for the illumination hook-ups (if you're going to hook that up) I get annoyed daisy chaining things together. If one gets loose, then you could get funky readings on anything after it in the chain. The blocks aren't that expensive and, in my opinion, it looks cleaner and is easier to work on in the future if they all have their own wire from a central block.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/2306/C ... r_-_6_Gang

Either way works and everyone has their preference.

I'm with you there. I hate daisy-chained wires or splicing them all together in a wire nut.
I'm a fan of barrier strips and bridging jumpers can be added to group several terminals by function.
Several for Ground, several for switched 12V, several for Batt, 1 or 2 for tach pulse. I did that on my old pontoon. This time I think I will use a 6-space fuse block each for Batt and switched 12V since this boat has a lot more accessories than my bare-bones old Crest.

In this diagram of the System Check harness what is the 6-pin connector for?

guy48065 wrote:In this diagram of the System Check harness what is the 6-pin connector for?

goes to the remote/key switch

https://www.marineengine.com/parts/tech ... 176340.pdf

If your boat starts, you can assume it's hooked up

Ok--I thought this was a separate harness that runs to the console just for gauges.