pilot 34 buzzer feeds?

hi all,

we have a 2003 ms pilot 34 with 370 yanmar and zf 220 transmission. our buzzer under the steering station is beeping. oil pressure and water temp are fine based on gauges.

does anyone know other sensors connected to this buzzer and , if possible,
where they are located?

thanks,

Mainship performed this same disservice on a number of boats, mine included. See this:

https://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s11/yanmar-6lpa-after-market-alarm-panel-29566.html

hi rich,

thanks for the post. i will consider it.

i did research on forum and some yanmar doc. is this a rule: switches feed gauges, sensors & senders feed the "buzzer"?

i don't look forward to working on that wiring block upside down.

Switches feed the buzzer. Senders feed the gauges.

On our 07 P34, we also had a temp switch for the transmissions that were connected to the buzzers.

Tonic1 said:

On our 07 P34, we also had a temp switch for the transmissions that were connected to the buzzers.

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That is true on my MS 30 Pilot II as well. There is an option to have a boost pressure switch, but my engine did not come with it installed, and Mastry Engine told me it was not necessary. I took the Seward after market alarm panel for the engine and relabeled the boost light to "Aft Bilge" to better monitor the first pump which activates when I get water in the people tank. The Gear Oil temp light is at the bottom of this panel.

tonic & gano....what type/mod trans do you have? my zf220 manual has no mention of the ability to monitor anything.

Duetto said:

tonic & gano....what type/mod trans do you have? my zf220 manual has no mention of the ability to monitor anything.

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ZF63A. There are a number of plugged holes on my tranny, and I bet you could find one or more on your 220 into which a heat switch would thread. Why not ask the manufacturer? My switch has two wires running from it, unlike the switches on the engine, which have one. Not exactly sure why.

Mine are also ZF63A models.

This may help.

https://www.sbmar.com/articles/zf-63a-pressure-and-temperature-sender-locations/

tonic & gano,

thanks for the info, but here is my question. without the addons to zf, etc by default what exactly is mainship actually monitoring? we know it's not trans temp (at least on mine), nor turbo boost, so exactly how many leads are live and which ones?

The first picture shows the temp switch i have on each ZF63A. The second picture shows the location. The white wire is the neutral switch, the black wire cover goes to the temp switch. Mine are original and are connected to the buzzer circuit. If you don't have a transmission temp switch, then the only connections to the circuit are likely just coolant temp and oil pressure. You will have a switch for each of those, as well as a sending unit for each to connect to the gauges.

Duetto said:

tonic & gano,

thanks for the info, but here is my question. without the addons to zf, etc by default what exactly is mainship actually monitoring? we know it's not trans temp (at least on mine), nor turbo boost, so exactly how many leads are live and which ones?

Click to expand...

Without turning on the ignition switch and shorting each switch, you won't know for sure. I found low coolant level, low oil pressure, high coolant temp, and water in fuel switches were monitored by the buzzer. When I installed the alarm panel, I ran all new wires from the point on the engine harness where I teed off and included the gear oil temp as well.

thanks guys. you've really clarified how the switches and senders work and relate to each other.
my plan is to solve the problem i have now before i try to change things.

thanks again.

more questions: 1) can you give me some hints on where the leads from the oil pressure sw 7 coolant temp sw tie into the buzzer. went to boat today and the red & black from buzzer disappear into a huge bundle. 2) is it correct to assume by removing the lead at a sw, if that sw is the cause of the buzzer buzzing, the buzzing should stop. i disconnected the lead from the oil pressure sw, started engine but it was still buzzing.

I never bothered to find where the various switch leads went once they entered the bundle. I simply went to the aft end of the engine (6LPA-STP) where I found all the color coded switch wires as indicated in the engine manual drawings and sent new wires from there to the console for my new alarm panel. Teeing into them rather than cutting them and butt connecting to the new wire ensured the original buzzer setup still worked. Properly placed diodes were needed to ensure all the alarm lights did not all come on at once.

Some ideas for troubleshooting:

Don't trust the oil pressure gauge. A manual gauge connected directly to the engine will tell the truth of that matter.

Once you are certain you have oil pressure, removing the wire from the low oil pressure switch, which is normally closed, with the engine shutdown but with ignition on would normally silence the low oil alarm. No other alarm should be on in this condition, but if it STILL sounds, go to the other switches one at a time and disconnect them until the alarm stops - there's your problem switch. Start the engine just to be sure. If buzzing does not stop with all the switches disconnected, there is a fault in the wiring at the buzzer.

With low oil pressure switch disconnected, if you don't get an alarm until the engine is started, you are back to disconnecting the switches one at a time to find the source.

If you find the source is the low coolant switch, but there is plenty of coolant, that switch needs attention. If you find the source is from the gear oil temp switch (and of course, it is not spinning and so is not hot), that switch is bad - same for the high coolant temp switch.

If you find the source is the water-in-fuel sensor, well, that's a bit harder to figure out because you may well have water in the fuel. If a check upstream at a Racor filter bowl indicates no water, and the engine runs fine, that sensor is bad.

So far that checks off low oil pressure, low coolant level, high coolant temp, high gear temp, and water-in-fuel, and that's about it unless a boost switch option is fitted.

rich,

do you happen to know the thread size for the oil pressure sw?

Duetto said:

rich,

do you happen to know the thread size for the oil pressure sw?

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Only that it is undoubtedly metric.

Hello Duetto: Did you solve your oil pressure buzzer issue? I had a similar low pressure alarm issue from my starboard engine, it was the oil pressure alarm sending unit, cost under $20 to replace. Gauge showed good oil pressure. Apparently the drip tube above the sender was missing and over the years the condensate dripped enough to create the issue.

not yet still testing. we've eliminated both water temp and oil pressure sw.

one thing we don't know is if those are the only sw connected to the buzzer on a pilot with vdo gauges.

I had the same issue and believe it was a low steering fluid alarm. Soon after it started we lost steering and had very low fluid, once this was fixed the buzzer went away. Just saying

Lollygag1 said:

I had the same issue and believe it was a low steering fluid alarm. Soon after it started we lost steering and had very low fluid, once this was fixed the buzzer went away. Just saying

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So you have power steering, eh? Mine is independent manual hydraulic so I have no such alarm. Good to know you do.

Hydronic steering sorry misspoke

one thing i want to point out: the buzzing is a low volume buzz NOT the piercing noise like when you turn the start switch on. it is definetly coming from buzzer.

where we are is 1) we've eliminated both sw as the problem. with both sw leads disconnected buzzer was still buzzing 2) we cut the grd coming out of the buzzer and buzzer stopped. 3) reconnected and buzzing came back.

conclusion is somehow the buzzer black wire is making grd in the bundle. not sure i want to rip bundle apart.

OP, are you still having problems?



On my 2005 34 Pilot, which I sold, I had all kinds of buzzer noises, all of which were traceable (after a couple of months by expensive electronic techs) to bad grounds on various parts of the boat. Bilge pumps, electric head, etc. We had no idea what caused all of these to pop up at once, simply fixed the problem one bad ground at a time until no more alarms.

yes, we still have the low buzz/hum.

do you remember if you had yanmar, faria, or vdo gauges? how did you go about finding the bad grounds?

I had 2 yanmars, fariah gauges. The problem wasn't the gauges. The techs did a WHOLE LOT of checking circuits until they found a bad connection. Once or twice they found a bad connection because the component with the bad ground did not work. I specifically recall the vacuflush motor was one instance of this.

On one wire sensors, the ground path is directly through the engine block or manifold, or exhaust pipe it is attached to. On two wire sensors, they are either both wired up to the gauge/buzzer circuit or one of them is run to the block for a ground source.

If you are chasing a ground issue, check straps/wires that ground the engine to the house system, engine to start battery, straps that ground manifolds with the block, etc... These can be a source of ground issues and weak signals from senders.

You can verify the block grounding with the ohm setting on your meter by testing from the block to the battery negative terminals, it should be a very low resistance < 1 ohm. Testing from the block to the alarm system's ground can be useful as well.

hi,

thanks for the tips.

first let me say i'm not an electrical guy. with that said, my impression is i have "too much" grd since the buzzer is supposed to go off when sw creates a grd. if that is true, doesn't it have to be a bare wire touching the block, etc?