Hello all, I have a 2004 Mainship 400 with twin Yanmars. I have Faria gauges and at the upper helm, the volmeter no longer works on either engine. The starboard engine started acting up first and a couple taps used to get it going again. Now nothing on either engine. I have 5" Faria multi gauges. I have the same gauges on the lower helm and they work fine so the alternators are working. From looking around, I would say the Chesapeake 5" black with S/S trim is the closest replacement. Problem is, they won't match the Tach exactly as the style appears to have changed. Second issue is that the set I have now only has fuel on one gauge. The port gauge has 4 functions (fuel, temp, volts and oil pressure. The starboard gauge only has three functions (temp, volts, oil pressure). In looking around I have not found a replacement Faria with the 3 functions. What I would love to know is if there is any way to repair/troubleshoot my malfunctioning volt meters? IF not, does anyone know of a source for a 3 function gauge and a 4 function? I would like to stick with Faria to match my tachs and lower helm gauges. Anyone else had this problem?
Faria multi gauge issue questions
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Dougcole
Guru
I have the same issue, specifically that my voltmeter on the port side doesn't work, though the stb side still does. As do both lowers. I called Lauderdale speedometer about it, and they said the gauges are not worth repairing. They recommended a new gauge but they were quite pricey. I haven't made the switch yet, so I am interested in what you find.
Thanks, Hopefully someone might have some beneficial tips or advice. I am not opposed to replacing both multi gauges if I could find one with just the three functions and the other with all four functions. So far, I have only seen the four function gauge. Ideally I would love to somehow fix what I have
Thanks Bacchus. I have seen where they offer some type of repair service. I will reach out to them about that but I suspect they are not really interested in repairing older gauges like mine. We will see, but it looked like they were more geared to warranty work and I ran across some posts in different places where they sent gauges back for warranty repair and Faria just exchanged them for new. I was hoping some of the experts here might have a secret or two about making these voltmeters work again. If not I will reach out to Faria about repair. Fingers crossed.
Maerin
Guru
Lauderdale Speedo
I've had them repair my VDO tachs. They're reliable, know their business and turnaround is usually reasonable depending on their work load. Not cheap. Y' get whatcha pay for.
I've had them repair my VDO tachs. They're reliable, know their business and turnaround is usually reasonable depending on their work load. Not cheap. Y' get whatcha pay for.
Dougcole
Guru
That's (I've heard good things about them) who I contacted sometime back and they said they did not or would not recommend repairing them. Though now that I think about it, I may have called them about my tachs, not the multi gauges.
I wouldn't mind replacing all of the tachs and gauges at my upper helm, but it's a surprisingly big spend.
rgano
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Unless things have changed in the last three years or so, Faria will put new guts in them for you. I do not think you can fix the voltmeter. My single Faria four-function went south with both the fuel and volts going tango uniform. I went to www.Greatlakesspipper.com for a huge selection of Faria gauges to get something similar to mine in style. With as many gauges as you have, I could see getting them fixed, but they are not really the best gauges. The fuel gauge thing is SOOO Mainship, reading only one tank. On my boat I found KUS/WEMA level senders in both my tanks but with only one connected. In my case with only a single engine I ran a wire from the unconnected tank sender to a DPST switch (seen over the top of the Faria cluster - sorry for sideways) on the console in order to select which tank I want to monitor. In your case with twin engines, which should normally be fed only from their own side tanks with no cross connection, I would get a fuel gauge to both sides, assuming my guess is correct about have level sensors on both sides but with only one connected. Next I would establish a manifold for return fuel to go to whichever tank you need it to - good for limping around on one engine. You probably already have a low-level tank cross-connect for when you need that function.
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Dougcole
Guru
Huh, I was just thinking about this last night before I went to sleep.
Yes, the 400 (or at least my 400) has a disconnected sender in the port tank, which I would really like to use as the genset pulls from that side. In the past I've thought of doing something similar to your set up with a switch, but last night I thought it may be better to have two gauges on the upper helm, where I run the boat 99% of the time.
Were you able to find the end of the sender wire from the port tank where it terminates under the helm? How did you do it? My wiring bundle is so tight and full that I can't find it without some surgery. I could run a new wire to the upper helm, but I hate doing that if I can avoid it.
Thanks Rich.
rgano
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My whole helm console (only one) flips back over for easy access to everything back there. My port fuel level sender was connected directly to the Faria cluster, so that was easily found and disconnected to reconnect to the new switch. Connecting the unconnected stbd sender was a simple matter of running its negative wire to the port side sender to connect the two grounds together followed by the harder positive wire to the selector switch at the console. I had to snake the new wire from the opposite side of the selector switch down through the very tight wiring run to the engine space where I had to reach across an inaccessible area with a two-foot long grabber to bring the wire out to where I could connect it to the stbd positive side of the stbd fuel level sender. Center post of the switch then connected to the original connection on the Faria cluster. It's simpler for you with two fuel gauges, as you know, just getting that positive sensor wire to the gauge is the issue. Maybe you could live with fuel gauges at only the lower level.
garmstro55
Senior Member
I have the MS400 with twins, and, when I bought the boat, the voltage gauges didn't work. (In my brain I found that hard to comprehend, since voltage has to be the easiest thing to measure.)
At the lower helm, they both worked. In addition, the port oil pressure gauge was dodgy, sometimes it would work, then it would drop to zero. When it first happened, I was in a bit of a panic but a check at the lower helm assured me I still had oil pressure.
Since I like everything to work properly on my boat, it was a source of constant annoyance that the volts were not displaying and the oil pressure was randomly showing no pressure.
I was ready to move the swap the lower and upper gauges, but a better solution arose. One of our TF members (Tonic1) had replaced all the instruments on his MS and was selling the old ones. I bought only the 4-function gauge that was acting up, and, lo and behold, the voltage registered but the oil pressure still acted wonky.
After an engine room search turned up the oil pressure sender, I cleaned and tightened the wire and it works perfectly now.
So, I have the voltmeter working on the port side, but I really don't know what it is measuring...I guess it's the port-most battery but I don't really know. Furthermore, the gauge is so inaccurate (the needle seems to be nearly 2 volts wide) I don't even pay much attention to it.
I guess it will tell me if the voltage regulator goes bad but it really doesn't tell me much about the battery.
But, Tonic1 may still have the rest of the gauges to sell and maybe that will help you out.
At the lower helm, they both worked. In addition, the port oil pressure gauge was dodgy, sometimes it would work, then it would drop to zero. When it first happened, I was in a bit of a panic but a check at the lower helm assured me I still had oil pressure.
Since I like everything to work properly on my boat, it was a source of constant annoyance that the volts were not displaying and the oil pressure was randomly showing no pressure.
I was ready to move the swap the lower and upper gauges, but a better solution arose. One of our TF members (Tonic1) had replaced all the instruments on his MS and was selling the old ones. I bought only the 4-function gauge that was acting up, and, lo and behold, the voltage registered but the oil pressure still acted wonky.
After an engine room search turned up the oil pressure sender, I cleaned and tightened the wire and it works perfectly now.
So, I have the voltmeter working on the port side, but I really don't know what it is measuring...I guess it's the port-most battery but I don't really know. Furthermore, the gauge is so inaccurate (the needle seems to be nearly 2 volts wide) I don't even pay much attention to it.
I guess it will tell me if the voltage regulator goes bad but it really doesn't tell me much about the battery.
But, Tonic1 may still have the rest of the gauges to sell and maybe that will help you out.
catalinajack
Guru
I believe it is best to measure voltage with a home run back to the batteries being measured. Perhaps you could run a new wire from your voltmeter to the battery bank you wish to monitor.
Dougcole
Guru
I've always noticed that my voltmeter isn't really accurate either. I just take it as an indicator that the alternator is working, or at least working a little. I use my soc monitor for battery voltage, I think it is much more accurate. It also seems to measure the alternator's output more accurately.
Totally with you on the oil pressure, that would freak me out.
Newtrawlerowner
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Faria may rebuild. I bought new gages at Ft Lauderdale Speedometer. They had them on the shelf.
garmstro55
Senior Member
That's funny Doug. You had the same problem I did, loose connection at the sender.
skipper724
Veteran Member
I hope this isn't a stupid question, but do ll the wires from the existing VDO multi gages go to the same connections on Faria?
Olebird
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I have several of these on tractors, etc around the farm and on the boat. Accurate enough to tell if charging systems are working. Since most sensors output voltage, you can use them to indicate most anything.
Don't for get most gpsmap units usually have a page that displays voltage - as well as some radios.
https://tinyurl.com/y2rk6jth
Don't for get most gpsmap units usually have a page that displays voltage - as well as some radios.
https://tinyurl.com/y2rk6jth
Just to circle back. I sent both gauges to Faria. Looks like they replaced the guts in each gauge since there is now an additional post sticking out the back side. Everything works as it should now. The even put clear protective tape over the face and sent all new hardware to include the plastic mounting plate. I could not be happier. Cost was $125 per gauge plus $18 shipping. Of course I also had to cover the shipping to get them there. They estimate 5-6 weeks for repair but mine were back in like 2 weeks. If I didn't have 8 gauges that I wanted to all match I would have replaced with new but I think this was a fair deal to have them all match.
I too have some issues with the Faria gauges not matching. My immediate issue is one of the two alarms has a very faint tone. It's not very loud but it is there. All systems are fine. It must be getting a signal from somewhere. The mechanic suggested a worn wire somewhere. I thinking the sensor. Any ideas?
Newtrawlerowner
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There are no alarms in the gauges. They are separate and are mounted near the gauges. I also had an alarm issue. Its a small black puck looking device. Using the number on the label, I found one on E-Bay for $5.00. Works great.
Here is a picture of mine. Zip tied to the wiring harness under the fly-bridge panel.
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Yes. I already replaced the port side buzzer. This is where the faint sound is coming from. There is no issue with the starboard side. The previous owner put 2-layers of duct tape over the port buzzer. I’m guessing to mute the faint sound. The buzzer performs as it should otherwise. This is why I suspect some other issue but not sure where to look.
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