Smart craft fuel display

[Jizm]

Ok the black and pink and black and orange go to your fuel sender (pink is signal). The black and blue and the other black and orange go to your external oil tank but it may not have a sender. The multiplug is for a paddle wheel.

On the fuel sender connect orange to ground and pink to signal (S+).

May then need calibrating.

[whackywoody]

Thanks for that J,

I am tempted to just wire in the pink and black an orange and black wires myself and see it anything works on the smart craft gauge as I don't see the point in spending money on a proper harness when the current harness is already got break outs

Cheers

Gareth

[Jizm]

You don't need a proper harness for the sender. Just wire the two cables to the sender using any old wire you have as a temporary test. Remove the sender and follow the calibration procedure detailed in the thread if you don't get any joy when you first switch on.

[Turbodiesel]

The harness in the photo is where you boat harness plugs in to. So you still need the boat harness itself. This is the one that goes from that plug to your, oil tanks, fuel tanks and paddle wheel. The fuel gauges takes its info via the engine ecu not direct from the sender itself. so the fuel tank sender plugs in to the boat harness which plugs into the engine. ECU then sends the signal to the gauge.

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by Turbodiesel

The harness in the photo is where you boat harness plugs in to. So you still need the boat harness itself. This is the one that goes from that plug to your, oil tanks, fuel tanks and paddle wheel. The fuel gauges takes its info via the engine ecu not direct from the sender itself. so the fuel tank sender plugs in to the boat harness which plugs into the engine. ECU then sends the signal to the gauge.

If I remember correctly the sender you need is the US one not the UK one, that will read ok but in reverse, ie full is empty. Details are in the manual. It is also possible to calibrate non square tanks if you start with an empty tank filling it in stages.

[Jizm]

Originally Posted by Cookee

If I remember correctly the sender you need is the US one not the UK one, that will read ok but in reverse, ie full is empty. Details are in the manual. It is also possible to calibrate non square tanks if you start with an empty tank filling it in stages.

Yep, the calibration is easier with the sender out so you can move it by hand as you go. Not sure what's US and what's not but mine is a 30-240ohm and works fine....

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by Jizm

Yep, the calibration is easier with the sender out so you can move it by hand as you go. Not sure what's US and what's not but mine is a 30-240ohm and works fine....

That's a US sender. Euro is 0-190 ohms.

[whackywoody]

Originally Posted by Jizm

You don't need a proper harness for the sender. Just wire the two cables to the sender using any old wire you have as a temporary test. Remove the sender and follow the calibration procedure detailed in the thread if you don't get any joy when you first switch on.

Connected pink/black wire and orange/black wire from engine harness with temp wire to the black and blue wires on brand new wema fuel sender in tank. I then followed calibration procedure on VDO gauge with sender outside the tank and I now longer get the fuel tank sender error message on smart craft gauge but doesn't matter what the float height is on my sender the smart craft gauge still reads 0 gallons and doesn't change

I haven't bought the harness as suggested by turbo diesel but I am very reluctant to do this as I won't fit the harness through my underfloor trunking

Any suggestions as to what my next moves should be anybody? Buy a Wema fuel gauge? Verify fuel sender (although its new) by measuring resistance at different float heights? Set fire to my boat ?

Thanks

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by whackywoody

Verify fuel sender (although its new) by measuring resistance at different float heights?

Thanks

That'd be a start

[whackywoody]

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

That'd be a start

Took the sender out and the resistance changed with float height so I know the float works (can't remember resistance readings). I also tried the pink and black wire (+ve / signal wire) and a -ve / neutral direct from the battery in case the black/orange was bad. So unless anybody else has any suggestions my options are

1.) Buy the paddle harness (may / may not fit down trunking)

2.) Buy the wema gauge which would be a lot easier but won't match the colour scheme of smart craft gauges

3.) Buy a smart craft fuel gauge and have a go at wiring it direct to the sender myself - not sure if this would work but wonder if anyone has done it

Thanks

[Nos4r2]

What colour are your smartcraft? My Wema gauge doesn't look too out of place.

You need to check the resistance with an empty tank and a full tank to determine if you've got a USA spec or a EU spec sender in order to buy the correct gauge.

[martini]

Listen to Turbodiesel, he's a very experienced Merc tech.

You could just buy a wema gauge but then you'll be losing out some of the smartcraft's capability, ie fuel remaining, range etc

[peterwhite]

You need a US spec sender. All you need to do is measure the depth of your tank and call wema uk tell them you need and they will supply it to suit bout 30-40 quid. Then you need to connect it to the boat harness on the pink and black wires and then calibrate on the smartcraft gauge.

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by peterwhite

You need a US spec sender. All you need to do is measure the depth of your tank and call wema uk tell them you need and they will supply it to suit bout 30-40 quid. Then you need to connect it to the boat harness on the pink and black wires and then calibrate on the smartcraft gauge.

Wema are very helpful as well as being very knowledgeable!

[Jizm]

So then can some one answer this:

Is it possible to wire a standard gauge to the sender as well as it being connected to the smartcraft?

[Nos4r2]

Doubt it. You'd have to do it in parallel which I strongly suspect will bugger up the resistance given how dramatic a change putting resistances in parallel makes.

You MIGHT be able to get an N2k reading though using a converter.