209 Escape - Troubleshooting switches

[MMidnight]

I recently bought a 1993 209 Escape and came across this forum, which is great! I noticed that some of the switches were not working anymore, while others were. For example, the nav lights & ACC work but the bilge, livewell and now horn won't work. The float switch on the bilge pump works so I know it is getting power. It appears they are all connected by jumpers so I figure it has to be one of the connections, switches or circuit breakers are bad, causing the rest not to work, but I have checked all the connections and they seem firm. It's not easy to follow all of these jumpers and I have not been able to find a schematic. I guess I will need to test them all with a multimeter, but not exactly sure how to do that..Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Greyduk]

Those would possibly be McGill switches which are still available. It would be helpful to see the switch panel from the front showing the switch itself to help identify them.

 

[Greyduk]

Do the switches look like these?

 

[kirk a]

Whatever you do, create your own schematic as you do it. What looks like a jumbled mess of wires and connections will turn out to be a clear diagram later. You then can keep it as a reference for the future. It will cut down your future troubleshooting tremendously.

For each switch, you'll want to track the wires entering and leaving - and find the fuses that are on that same wire. It is at least as likely to be the fuse as it is to be the switch, and perhaps more likely to be the fuse.

That said, generally one would connect the negative cord from a multimeter to the ground or ground bus, and then you can connect the positive end to the switches and move downstream. Test the in side of each switch, then the out side. Flip switch to see if the out side has power. That can help you determine if your issue is the switch.

 

[dainlaroche]

I have the same boat and had to replace a breaker and two switches in the last year. Use your multimeter to isolate the problem, pull the switch or breaker and find a match. I found the switches at Del City: https://www.delcity.net/store/Illuminated,-Euro!Style/p_796736.h_796752

and the ETA breakers on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-E-T-A-16...009062?hash=item3ad7b41f26:g:eFIAAOSwNnRYfM7M The bad breaker I found only exhibited symptoms under load. I was able to witness a drop in voltage on the load side of it when the circuit was switched on.

Might order one extra of each to save on shipping later if another one goes. I also went through every single electrical connection (one at a time) cleaning up the terminals, putting a little dielectric grease on them, and verifying the integrity of the connections. Also check any butt/splice connectors and consider redoing them with heat shrink connectors. The ones at West Marine are ridiculously expensive and these have worked well for me: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HCPFPD2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Everything electrical works as it should now.

 

[MMidnight]

Do the switches look like these?

View attachment 15613

Similar..pic attached

 

[dainlaroche]

P.S. wiring diagram is in the attached.

 

[SkunkBoat]

The orange wires are +12V and the black wires are the negative. The Orange wire jumps from breaker to breaker on one side(giving 12v to all) and from breaker to switch (giving power to switch) on the other.. The black wires on the switches provide the negative for the light in the switch. The remaining colored wires go to the various components like Horn, livewell, etc.
Since the nav lights work, there must be 12v to the breakers. There are no fuses to consider as the breakers on the panel are the circiut protection.
Its not likely that there are that many bad breakers. Those switches were not very good . I just replaced my whole panel with new switches.

You could test things by using the working ACC switch.

It is possible (likely) that the horn is rusted...try smacking it with a wrench...

 

[MMidnight]

P.S. wiring diagram is in the attached.

Thanks. I don't know how I missed the wiring diagram in the owners manual.....

 

[MMidnight]

Thanks for all of the input! By testing each one with a multimeter and swapping switches and breakers, I determined that I have a couple of bad breakers & a bad switch. all of the power in side of the breakers (orange wires) had power but 2 did not have power coming out ( and they were not tripped). And one of the switches would not show anything on the mm when switched on, even though there was power getting to the switch. I was able to swap some of the bad ones with ones that were less used and was able to get everything to work. I will have to order some new switches and breakers but I am considering ordering a new panel from New Wire like others have posted. It's not as hard to decipher the spider web of wires after you look at it for a while but hopefully this can help somebody else that is also bound to have the same problem down the road....Now I just have to deal with my engine not going in reverse,,,but that's for another post.....Been out of boating for about 10 years and now I remember why....