www.iFourWinns.com

Looking for a little advice...went out today, hit my Tim tab buttons...fish finder turned off? WTH never did that before...volt meter jumped as well. It did this every time and every time I could simply turn it back on. Checked the battery connection..what Do you think I should be looking for? I see no connection between the two devices.

TIA,

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

Sounds like a classic ground fault issue, likely these particular units, for some reason, use the same grounding spot. If it is iffy, the voltage these units see decrease beyond their acceptance when the heavy consumer trim tabs run and they turn off, as the "negative" i.e. 0 lead starts seeing "positive" voltage the net difference between their plus and minus leads decrease. I hope that makes sense.

Find the trim tab motor, trace its negative lead to where it grounds. That is where I would start.

Chris, is your fuse panel on the bottom right if sitting at helm? On my vista all the wires are kinda jammed in there, on more than one occasion I have have ground wires simply come off the back of fuse panel. Take the fuse panel out and look at all wires on the back. make sure nothing is loose.

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2001 Four Winns Vista 248 by rick2752, on Flickr

Thanks,

Haddock that's great advice I'll have a look...my fish finder always says low voltage...so it probably always been a problem Im sure it's not the batteries since I just put three new ones in.

Rick my fuse panel is right behind the steering wheel fairly easy to get to for a circus performer, hehe. I'll give that area a check as well.

Thanks again.

The usual suspect for corroded ground connections, at least on the GM engines, is just above the starter motor,

Wanted to update. Found the problem right away. Opened the hatch and it was staring at me. Somehow the alternator belt (which was changed about 3 months ago) inverted! That's right it didn't fall off or break it simply turned inside out. Took it off put it back the right way and trim doesn't turn off fish finder anymore. Why do I always have the weird problems? I know the belt was squealing bad that day, and I saw the voltage wasn't right...should have assumed the belt went backwards and stopped powering the alternator..hehe

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

In case there was some confusion as to "belt inverted"