New Radio Install
Well it was pretty cold…but once the heater was up and running for a little while the pilothouse and cockpit were somewhat warm. I stripped out the wiring from the old radio and fishfinder. I then cleaned up some wiring I left a little long in case I wanted to make changes and then began wiring up the new radio. I also connected all the NMEA wires for the GPS, fishfinder and radio so everything can communicate to each other. I still have to apply power to everything and make sure the connections are all correct but if I interpreted the manuals right the connections should all be good. I then re-tied all the wires back into one nice neat wire bundle. In the process of relocating the VHF antenna wire I discovered the solder on connector was not soldered all that well. Next trip down I will re-solder that connection and maybe I will see improved radio range from what I already think is pretty good range.
When I was running a new accessory, always on wire I noticed a pretty heave smell of gas. My fuel filters were very loose and actually dripping slowly. Only thing I could think of is that the gaskets had shrank from the recent cold weather. I tightened them up and they did not leak the rest of the day. Hopefully the cold weather is what caused this and hopefully only a little leaked out and still have a mostly full tank.
