Cat 3208 maintenance & Parts Manuals

New to the forum. I just purchased an 87 symbol 44 with cat 3208 TA engines. Cat doesn't sell the manuals anymore and don't know whether on line downloads for $ are the real thing. The thing I really need is an engine harness wiring diagram. Serial are 01Z.

I don't have the electronic version, but I was able to buy a set of paper manuals for $220 on ebay. Part number SENR2131-03. You can buy a USB with a .pdf of the manual on ebay for 89 bucks. Ebay is very safe for the buyer so there's little risk buying there.

Ebay manuals

Mischief thanks for the reply. Never used ebay much but I’ll get on it. Thanks. In the meantime if you could take a shot of the wiring schematic and post it or email
It that would be awesome.

The wiring is incredibly simple. You likely have extra wires for oil pressure, temperature, and tachometer instruments, but it will run without those. What wiring are you trying to understand?

Mischief Managed said:

The wiring is incredibly simple. You likely have extra wires for oil pressure, temperature, and tachometer instruments, but it will run without those. What wiring are you trying to understand?

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thanks for the schematic My issue is port engine start button circuit stopped working but I can start by jumping the start solenoid. I checked the helm button and I was ok. Then I started reading the wiring in the engine room where bridge bundle connected to the engine harness. Under load when the start button was pushed voltage to the starter solenoid was too low to.engage solenoid i also the med what I thought was wire from harness connection in the engine harness to start solenoid and found no continuity. There's also a Marinetics start box on the bulkhead that I have not investigated and have no docs on. The schematic you posted shows a solenoid #10 that appears to send the 12V to the starter motor solenoid. I saw the red and white wires on the starter solenoid so the colors appear to match the schematic you sent. so maybe it's just a bad #10 solenoid? in fact I think I saw a spare on the boat....DO these go often? I have a stop button in my system which does not appear in this schematic all my key switch does is power up the engine wiring and start the buzzers until Oil press stops the buzzer. But my engines will run if you turn the key off...until you push the stop button.

Hookmeup said:

thanks for the schematic My issue is port engine start button circuit stopped working but I can start by jumping the start solenoid. I checked the helm button and I was ok. Then I started reading the wiring in the engine room where bridge bundle connected to the engine harness. Under load when the start button was pushed voltage to the starter solenoid was too low to.engage solenoid i also the med what I thought was wire from harness connection in the engine harness to start solenoid and found no continuity. There's also a Marinetics start box on the bulkhead that I have not investigated and have no docs on. The schematic you posted shows a solenoid #10 that appears to send the 12V to the starter motor solenoid. I saw the red and white wires on the starter solenoid so the colors appear to match the schematic you sent. so maybe it's just a bad #10 solenoid? in fact I think I saw a spare on the boat....DO these go often? I have a stop button in my system which does not appear in this schematic all my key switch does is power up the engine wiring and start the buzzers until Oil press stops the buzzer. But my engines will run if you turn the key off...until you push the stop button.

Click to expand...

Try removing the dashed wire from #10 and use a jumper wire to apply 12V directly to the post on #10 from the start battery. The engine should crank, but not start. Assuming the engine cranks, this will rule out #10 as the culprit. If the engine does not crank, the ground connection to #10 may be bad, or #10 is bad.



If you find that #10 is good with the test above, you need to trace the wiring from #10 to the start button and figure out where the excessive resistance is. All of this wiing is part of the boat, not the engine, so it''s impossible for me to say precisely where the problem is. While you are working on this stuff, it would be a great time to install a momentary SPST NC switch in the fuel solenoid wiring and a momentary SPST NO switch on #10 post from the test above and the battery +, in the engine room. You can use these to start and stop the engine as long as the key is on. They may be handy for troubleshooting later and can serve as backups in case something happens to the helm wiring.



Once the engine is running, killing +12V power or ground to the fuel solenoid should kill the engine, but you may have a latching relay in the circuit that has to be manually shut off with the separate stop button. That relay would come between the ignition switch and the fuel solenoid and would not be shown in the diagram I posted.

Mischief. Thanks for the tutorial! I traced the problem to a bad ground connection to the starter solenoid at the starter motor negative post. That is where the start solenoid gets its ground from. the positive circuit from the bridge start button was ok. Bad ring connector was the culprit at the starter motor negative post so the start solenoid wasn't getting a ground connection. In addition to the large battery cable there are 5 other ring terminals on that starter motor post going into the engine wiring harness. I'll redo them all when I get the large ring terminals. Hope this discussion helps others if they have start circuit issues. I plan on checking the stop circuit wiring and connections next as a precaution.

That's great news.

3208 wiring

Mischief, I was reading the post, and thank you for the good information. I have a Tollycraft 44 CPMY and I am having an issue getting power to the key switch on the remote console. I don't have an electoral diagram and I think the power is supplied from the engine terminal block up through the harness to the key switch. I believe this is the red wire, also believe the ignition wire runs from the key switch to the start solenoid and is pink to purple in color. Does this sound correct?

DarrylM said:

Mischief, I was reading the post, and thank you for the good information. I have a Tollycraft 44 CPMY and I am having an issue getting power to the key switch on the remote console. I don't have an electoral diagram and I think the power is supplied from the engine terminal block up through the harness to the key switch. I believe this is the red wire, also believe the ignition wire runs from the key switch to the start solenoid and is pink to purple in color. Does this sound correct?

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I'm not sure what color wires Tollycraft used on your boat, but purple would typically run from the key switch to the fuel solenoid and yellow with red stripe would run from your engine start circuit to the starter slave solenoid coil connection. Power to the key switch is typically supplied by a red wire from the engine terminal strip, as you stated. If you are not getting power to the key switch, it might be the main harness connector on the engine or a problem with the engine battery switch.