New Life for Old Instruments

Dec 15, 2019
133
Hunter 49 San Diego
This post is for all of those boaters out there with old Raymarine ST 60 instruments. I've had trouble with my wind instrument for a couple of years now. It would only work intermittently. I figured it was corrosion on the spade connectors so I disconnected them several times and cleaned them really well. This fixed the problem in the short term, but not permanently. Last week I decided to order new spade connectors and try cutting off several inches of old wire and crimping on new terminals. The results were dramatic. The instrument works perfectly now. The screen is brighter, the wind direction needle is more sensitive, and the wind speed numbers are way more active than they used to be. I was ready to buy a new instrument and go through the hassle of installing a new masthead transducer and head unit. I'm sure glad I tried this first. Be sure to cut back double the length of insulation that you need for the crimp and fold over the wire to make it double the thickness inside the terminal. This provides more surface area for the crimp to bite. I’ll include a picture of the appropriate crimps. The crimps that you can buy at the marine store won't work.
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Dec 19, 2006
5,809
Hunter 36 Punta Gorda
I had same problem but new wires did not help and went up mast and found damage from birds and even fishing line inside turning part and found great new replacement and working like new again.
I searched eBay and Craigslist and got lucky and found new in box locally much lower price than most others for sale.
Nick