HONDAM

No problem i can help. First let me explain that the blue lowrance network is not true NMEA 2000 because it does not use the standard plugs although Lowrance mades a Blue to Red adapter where the red is a true NMEA 2000 connection

An antenna is anywhere from $150-$200 depending on where you get it from.

First what you need is a NMEA 2000 starter kit. Again does not need to be Lowrance because true NMEA 2000 is universal. A starter kit will have at least power lead, a NMEA T, a male terminator, and a female terminator. (about $50 online)

To hook into the NMEA network you will need the blue to red adapter from Lowrance ($25 online)

Then you will need a short NMEA 2000 cable to go from your adapter to your Ts. Although if you buy the Garmin starter kit it actually comes with a couple spare cables so you wont need to buy one seperately. ($60 for Garmin starter or $15 for short cable)

So all together your looking at about $250 roughly.

HEre is a picture of a proper NMEA 2000 Network. See where is says NMEA 2000 Bb, just below that are your NMEA Ts. You can see how they plug together and at each end it looks like a cap, those are called terminators. Where that one has 3 Ts you only will also have 3. One will be the same yellow wire supply power and two will go to your blue to red adapter, and three to your gps antenna.

PS if your uncomfortable with it or arent following me i can get it for you and pre assemble it that way youll just have screw down the antenna and plug it into your lowrance.

I dont have one but if you cant find that specific cable you can just use a proper NMEA 2000 configuration which may be easier to find.

To complete a proper NMEA 2000 network you will need 2 Ts, a male and female terminator, and a backbone or drop cable. Everything needs to have the blue connectors since the blue connectors are lowrance specific and when they went to the red it conforms to NMEA standars and is the same across the board.

I know its to late for you but for others i tend to stay away from Lowrance GPS antennas when you need to replace one that goes out. They seem to be less reliable then the others and the special cables can be a pain. You can plug a garmin in there and not need any special cables or wiring and probably never have a problem again.

A picture of the back of your boat would help to see if there is anything you can do better with your transom mount

If i were buying a new cable steering system it would definately be a Uflex NFB system.

Uflex has a better design for their helm then teleflex and the nfb i think is worth the extra money.

Here is the final info on the new Herring strips:

Name : Earie Dearie King Strips

Price: $6.25 per tub

$124.99 per case of 24 tubs

Availability: ONLY at Calumet Marine and Calumetmarine.com

Link: http://calumetmarine.3dcartstores.com/Earie-Dearie-King-Strips_p_372.html

These strips are completely different then the standard Earie Dearie and has been cut to fit perfectly into your John King and Big Weenie meat rigs.

Standard Earie Deare on left and King Strips on the right.

Blood run is great and I just went with 45 myself. I used Morgan's for a while too which is good to but he jacked up the price on me so I switched to blood run and haven't been dissappointed.

Big weenie makes good meat rigs but if you want to add some variety my favorite is capt John king. He was one of the original innovators on meat rig fishing and has been doing it a long time with a proven design.

They are available on the calumet marine webstore

yes the same one will work for mercruiser for alignment, there are some great deals on these on ebay if you want to buy one. Thats where i got mine and am very happy with it.

Any chance we can get a picture?

The best thing to do is to return the battery switch and get a battery management cluster if you can afford it. It runs about $150 and what it does is it automatically distributes your charging power to first then starting battery and once that one is full it takes all the charging power and uses it to keep the house battery up. No switching required because its all automatic and does not allow one battery to drain the other.

It comes with really good directions and is a breeze to install, also if you already have a perko style switch in most cases no rewiring is needed just take the wires off the perko switch and put them on the right post per the direstions and thats it.

I just added it to the online store so you can easily find it, for more info click the link below.

http://calumetmarine.3dcartstores.com/Battery-Distibution-Cluster--Single_p_445.html

Here are some pictures of an install that i did with one of these:

This is an overview

The Cluster with leads

Heres the connection for the house circuit

Heres where the motors hook up (not yet connected)

$3200 to convert ?!?!? Thats about twice what it should be.

You can do a Garmin GHP-12 or a Raymarine X-10 and an octopus pump and spend about $2500 in parts to get an excellent autopilot while not having to convert.

The Sportpilot is ok when you get a working one does not handle strong winds or decent sized waves very well but i guess thas ok considering the price.

You will be fine.

Do you already have a battery switch installed or just considering your options?

It's a broken depth raider antenna that someone has tried to rig to work.

You generally have your deepest lines toward the center as you go out you run lines higher. There is a lower chance of tangles that way. That's the way I ran it but it's just whatever works best for you.

Black lights work best for me, even installed 12v led black lights in my spoon box.

Any NMEA compatible gps will work, does not have to be lowrance. If you can find a Garmin, Raymarine, maretron, or any other NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000 it will work.

Sounds like a worn impeller either old or damaged

you usually just need to pull the prop shaft carrier

Make sure you pressure check when your done to make sure that is the only leak

4.3L only tells us the engine size, if you need any more help we will need to know what drive you have.

That outer wire wrap is your ground use the wrap on the nmea in side of the radio. Just twist it up so you can use it in your connector to your Humminbird ground

I took a look at the m412 manual and it looks like the nmea wires may have an inner and outer conductor. The inner core is the + and the outer wire you twist together and connect to the ground lead from the Humminbird if this is the case.

It's hard to know for sure since I haven't installed an icom in a few years.

Did you hook the nmea out on the Humminbird to the nmea in on the radio and the ground. You only need to hook up 2 wires to get it to work.

If you hook nmea in to nmea in it wont work you have to hook out to in then in to out.

If any of you are looking for something for weather it be boat or engine related, fishing equipment, or electroincs post it in this thread and it may go on the Calumet Marine webstore. I built our calumet marine website and webstore and although im no longer working there i still do all the updating for my dad.

So if you want it and its available to us ill put it up there. I try to put the best prices i can and always appreciate your buisness.

For example we were just talking about VHF radios so i put 4 different ones up on there just a few minutes ago and if i missed one your looking for let me know.

http://calumetmarine.3dcartstores.com/VHF-Radios-and-Accesories_c_32.html

There are 3 things you look at in a marine radio: Price, Features, Reliability.

The biggest determination in price is features and there are 2 differant radios i would recommend for completely different reasons.

1 Standard Horizon GX1150 Eclipse - Standard has been know as one of the industry leadings in marine radios for a long time and has a big reputation for reliability. This is an basic VHF radio and will do everything you need in a VHF. If you want to upgrade to a bigger screen the GX1600 explorer is only about $25 more and is another excellent one.

2 Garmin VHF200 - All i can say is features. It has a big screen an a big list of features. Its biggest one is NMEA 2000 comtability so you can network it with any NMEA 2000 device very easily and share a whole lot more information.

PS the eclipse has a $20 rebate right now.

It's a #8 spro swivel rated at 50lbs

The shrink tubing my dad sells is kinda hard to find because it is a weird size (3 or 5 / 32nds dont remember off hand) but it fits perfectly. I'm sure others work too but this is what I have found to fit the best.

Here is a link to the stuff I use.

http://calumetmarine.3dcartstores.com/Terminal-Tackle_c_20.html

I didnt mean that the albrite is a weak knot just that the haywire twist was stronger from the simple test that i did. They both get the job done and have their different advantages and disadvantages.

I went through the the different advantages of the haywire twist the only downside i can find is the requirement of additional harware.