Any thing special about the factory Sea doo speedo?

[Ironmikea]

Greetings,
I completely restored a 2004 Utopia 205 approximately 3 years ago (had the engine rebuilt, redid upholstery, etc.). While doing so, I decided to change the speedo to a new analog Faria Chesapeake gauge. Of course, the speedo doesn't work. When I say "doesn't work", I mean that on power up the speedo needle goes to 0, but it doesn't move when the boat is moving. I'm not sure if the original speedo was working, when I purchased the boat but it was foggy so since I had the dash disassembled, I decided to change it. I don't know if the problem is the sensor or the connection to the speedo. I was going to purchase another sensor and connect it to the harness since this would be easy, just connecting it to the 2 pin connector. Before I chase my tail and take the dash apart again, I was wandering if someone could tell me if there is any compatibility issues which would not allow the new speedo to work. I suspect that Faria will work with any boat. Any insight you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[AirSniper]

Greetings,
I completely restored a 2004 Utopia 205 approximately 3 years ago (had the engine rebuilt, redid upholstery, etc.). While doing so, I decided to change the speedo to a new analog Faria Chesapeake gauge. Of course, the speedo doesn't work. When I say "doesn't work", I mean that on power up the speedo needle goes to 0, but it doesn't move when the boat is moving. I'm not sure if the original speedo was working, when I purchased the boat but it was foggy so since I had the dash disassembled, I decided to change it. I don't know if the problem is the sensor or the connection to the speedo. I was going to purchase another sensor and connect it to the harness since this would be easy, just connecting it to the 2 pin connector. Before I chase my tail and take the dash apart again, I was wandering if someone could tell me if there is any compatibility issues which would not allow the new speedo to work. I suspect that Faria will work with any boat. Any insight you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I replaced my Speedo with a Faria years ago, works fine. Slight connection differences. Here is a pic i took, perhaps it may help.
You can check the pickup by measuring a small voltage pulse when you spin it, theres not much to fail on that - magnet & pickup.

 

[Ironmikea]

Thanks for your response. Faria Chesapeake is a specific model that is different than the stock speedo that you have pictured. I have an electric model which should work with a paddle wheel. I was wandering if someone has connected a different model Faria and was able to get it working. One think that's interesting is the sensor has 2 wires. I was trying to understand how the sensor works since it's only 2 wires.

 

[AirSniper]

It is actually quite simple. the two wires are connected to a coil, the spinner on the sensor has small magnets imbedded into it. As the water spins the wheel, the magnets pass across the coil inducing a small voltage/frequency proportional to speed. Your indicator simply translates this sensor output.
Some Speed pickup units have 3 wires - the extra one is for a temp sensor which is a variable resistor that changes electrical resistance proportional to temperature.
So you see, easy to test, and not much to go wrong.

 

[Ironmikea]

Great. Thanks for this explanation. This will help me troubleshoot whats going on. It will at least be able to make sure the sensor is outputing a voltage. What I suspect is that I should be able to use a multi-meter on the AC setting to see an output since I don't have a scope.

 

[Tim75]

Great. Thanks for this explanation. This will help me troubleshoot whats going on. It will at least be able to make sure the sensor is outputing a voltage. What I suspect is that I should be able to use a multi-meter on the AC setting to see an output since I don't have a scope.

Typical failure is the speedometer head, wires to the coil, and the coil itself (corrosion).