Outboard problem. Help please

Hello. Assistance needed if anyone can help. I have a 1996 Mariner Magnum III 150hp. Been a great motor until today. Actually not sure its the motors fault. Motor still runs like a dream. Problem is today I lost all of my guages except water pressure gauge. No tach, trim gauge, volt meter, etc.. I checked all fuses in fuse box, the inline fuse under the cowl, and two inline fuses that come off starting battery. They are all intact. Any other ideas? The metal wire ground on the backside of the motor is intact too. Voltage regulator? Any help is appreciated.

Hi Robby I’m not sure if this will help but I had something similar happen on my last boat. It had a 1992 Johnson on it. The problem was the wires coming out of the throttle control box worked loose I just pushed the plug back in and everything started working again. I hope this helps.

Cowboy, Thank you much. I’ll give that a shot!

I had the same thing happen with my Merc a few years ago. And while it was one of those “Oh crap” moments when I saw it, I just turned off the ignition switch and restarted the motor and it’s been fine since. If that doesn’t work try pulling off one of the starting battery cables for a couple minutes – that lets any computer module that is “brain locked” reset itself.

Hope it’s something simple for you. If these suggestions don’t work maybe try posting on a Mercury forum like at Bass Boat Central.

I would suspect the ground / negative wire to the gauges as that might be a common connection for all the gauges.

I’d say either the ground (which should be the ground for all of your dash switches as well), or where the wire attaches to the ignition switch.

Shouldn’t be too hard to trace and fix. Nice week coming up to work on it!