Wire Routing for Knot meter cable

[Shippy]

A little winter project (so I thought) was to replace the failed sending unit on my knot meter with a replacement unit the PO had purchaed and given to me when I bought the boat. I was told that you should not just spice the wire but run the new cable back to the display unit (Raymarine st60s). I was hoping that I could disconnect the old cable from the back of the display at the helm, tie a messanger line to it, pull it back thru the boat to he location of the failed sending unit and pull the new cable back again to the helm. Well, after about three hours, no such luck. the existing bundle of wires have been taped together, tied together and gooped together in so many places that there is NO play in the cables. So I started the process of pulling up floor boards, clipping wire ties, undoing tape etc and still no play. For any of those that have done this job, especially on a '03 hunter 356 any advice (short of go wireless) would be appreciated. So far I have routed the messanger line down thru the stainless at the helm, down under the cockpit floor but haven't gotten much past this. Does the cable next run to the PVC looking pipe in the back of the port locker or along the front port locker wiring bundle? At first I thought it was the front bundle of wires, but now I'm thinking it might run to that back conduit and if so, how does one get access to that? Don't you just love little projects like this :-(

 

[Marc P]

356 Sending Unit

I thought there was a previous post where someone said just the sending unit could be replaced. Looking at my unit though I can't see how. There was also some discussion as to whether or not you could splice the existing wire onto a new unit, and some people had success with that method as well.

 

[chuckwayne]

just splice the wires carefully

Shippy,you can't just fish the cable through, the holes in the grid are too small for the connectors to fit through.We talked to Raymarine, and they said it's ok to cut and splice the wires as long as it's done carefully-soldered and then sealed with the glue lined shrink sleeving.We did ours on our '02 356 after Hunter delivered the boat with the depth and speed senders swapped-making it impossible to clean the paddlewheels-on our custom ordered with ST60 guages '02. they've worked fine ever since.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Leave the old wire in

and just make a new wire run with the new wire. It does not have to be the same run as the current one, it just needs to connect the two devices, not get in the way of other things, and pass the admiral's "looks good to me" test.

 

[Steve]

356 wiring

I am planning to run some new wiring from the helm to the DC panel for a GPS and so I took a good look at how to do it. From what I can see, once you get the wire down below the cockpit sole it should run into the port locker. It then goes along the PVC pipe and into the wet locker and then the shower and vanity area. In the head area the wire is behind the trim above the ports - you can stick your fingers up there and feel lots of wires. Once out of the head, the wire goes down through an access panel above the electrical panel and just forward of the head bulkhead. At this point, I am finished. You will have to run your wire down behind the panel where the battery switch is located (disconnect batteries first) and into the sump area, then forward across the bilge and through the limber hole into where the knotmeter is mounted. However, after all is said and done, splicing the new sender into the old cable works just as well as long as you do it very carefully and fully insulate and waterproof the splice.

 

[chuckwayne]

steve's got the path right

Shippy,steve's got the path right, but be aware that as you go forward from the head to the nav station the wire bundle exits the conduit and takes a dive behind the top edge of the nav station-it's really hard to get a wire thru the turn,especially if you've already got a bunch of extra cables

 

[Shippy]

Oh what fun

Thanks guys. Splicing the wire seems to void any warrenty but following the original path doesn't look feasible. I see no possible way to get the wire from under teh cockpit floor thru to the conduit. I'm guessing that running a new run is my only option at this point. Guess I just plug in the space heater and dedicate several more long hours to pulling the cable thru the locker, head, befhind the nav, down thru the floor boards to the bow. Sounds like fun, just not for me! Why hunter didn't leave a messanger line in that conduit gets me.