Lake temp sensor, 2 wire or 3 wire?

[AnviL Man]

Just trying to clear a couple things up for my own info. I have an 03' Speedster Bombardier 240 efi and I am trying to figure out if my model has a lake temp sensor? I have been googling trying to find out but I cannot figure out for sure if I have one or not or where it's located if I do have it. The main reason I want to know is because I want to install the candoo gps speed sensor in place of what is there since my speedometer isn't working. The first plug connection from the paddle wheel has two wires on both sides. But, the previous owner mentioned he installed a 3 wire instead of 2 wire to try and fix the speedometer but it didn't work. He said he might've needed to try a different combination of those wires and see if that would get it working but he never did. Anyways, I just want to do away with all that and get the candoo gps one. Just don't know what exactly I need. Here is a pic of that connection.

 

[drjack]

The paddle wheel speed sensor is a three wire configuration. Two of those wires is battery power (+12 and ground) with the third wire being signal or pulse to the tachometer input circuitry.
I removed our defective speed sensor and did an autopsy with the black epoxy block area. It's a simple hall effect transistor with a zener diode. The magnets "cut" the field of the hall effect transistor to provide the pulse signal for the third wire.
There is no components for temp sensing.

 

[AnviL Man]

The paddle wheel speed sensor is a three wire configuration. Two of those wires is battery power (+12 and ground) with the third wire being signal or pulse to the tachometer input circuitry.
I removed our defective speed sensor and did an autopsy with the black epoxy block area. It's a simple hall effect transistor with a zener diode. The magnets "cut" the field of the hall effect transistor to provide the pulse signal for the third wire.
There is no components for temp sensing.

Ok I am not sure now because if you look in the pic I posted there are only two wires leading to that plug connection up from the paddle wheel and two wires on the other side of the plug leading up into the boat. I don't see a third wire. Am I wrong?

 

[snikwad003]

Whats behind that tape?

 

[drjack]

Something is not making sense in the picture. I recall using a purple wire used for a depth transducer. And yes, there appears to be more to see under the electrical tape.

 

[drjack]

Anvil,

Sorry but I mislead you.
I had to go back in my files to verify the wiring configuration used. There is a two wire system for the speed sensing circuit. A three wire configuration is also available, but by looking at your photo, this does not appear to be used on your machine.

In the two wire method, the purple/ yellow wire is a dual purpose "12 volt/ pulse line" which belongs to the tachometer. Not battery positive! The black/ orange is battery ground.
Still, no wiring for a temperature sensing.

 

[AnviL Man]

Thank you for the responses. I am going to check tomorrow if there is another wire hiding inside the electrical tape. The previous owner did mention something about him attempting to fix the speedometer and had gotten the wrong wire, either he needed the 3 wire config and got the two wire by mistake or vice versa. I will check tomorrow and report back.

 

[snikwad003]

You might want to find how to test the guage its self incase the PO sent voltage to the wrong place and smoked the gauge. This might not even be possible just throwing it out there.

 

[AnviL Man]

Ok so I noticed a couple of things. The speedometer does not illuminate with the other instruments when switched on with the light button. The fuel gauge and tachometer both light up but the speedometer does not, it just stays dark. I also peeled off the electrical tape on that wire and revealed a third wire wrapped up in there. So what should I do? Like I said the owner had said something like he replaced the wire coming off the paddle wheel and bought a three wire instead of the two wire. So is my boat normally a two wire configuration? Could I just switch these wires around?

 

[drjack]

Just for clarification, where does the twisted white wires lead to? And, where does the three wire cable go to?

 

[AnviL Man]

Just for clarification, where does the twisted white wires lead to? And, where does the three wire cable go to?

The three wire cable runs to the paddle wheel, the twisted white ones lead into the boat, I'm guessing to the speedometer.

 

[snikwad003]

You need to check for power at the gauge, the lighting could be coincidence since it gets switched on with the running lights. If youre going with the candoo gps I think it plugs straight into the gauge, could be wrong, but if you are going with candoo you need the 2 wire unit

 

[drjack]

I don't have the wiring diagram for your machine, but by some research I believe you have a three wire sensor connecting to a two wire controller. The orange wire is the sensing wire.
The white, and white/blk wires are heading to your computer module.
Download the shop manual to verify the wiring configuration pertaining to your year and model.
Likely what happened is the original speed sensor failed, and your previous owner installed the wrong replacement.