MacGregorSailors.com

The Merc 50 really is a slice of pie to start...especially if you replace the really stretchy piece of line they give you with stiffer cord.

Russ - for Big Sky Country I would buy an aux battery starter rather than 'battery manager" approach - in the winter it can go into the car of course...

I just installed 2 x Group 24 Deep Cycle Marine batteries from Interstate Batteries. $69 each from an Interstate Battery dealer in Jacksonville, FL. I also installed a BlueSea Systems 1-2-Both-Off Switch ($33 from Defender). And I installed a Yandina Battery Combiner ($55 from Defender).

Everything is hooked to the "common" post on the battery switch...so battery 1 or battery 2 powers everything depending on which battery is selected. I use battery 1 on odd days and battery 2 on even days. When the engine is running the Yandina Combiner ensures that charging power goes to both batteries. If for some reason I run a battery dead then I have the other battery as back-up.

As said earlier, no need for a dedicated starter battery in my opinion.

Got all these ideas from FrankC...who I haven't seen online in over a year or so. This all makes sense to me and was very simple to install as I already had the wiring to/from the engine and to/from the electrical panel from my standard system.

Good Luck,
Jim

For anyone considering pull starting a 50+ HP motor, don't forget to flip the "decompression" switch; makes the job sooooo much easier. I didn't always know of that feature but now I do

I just inherited a 1996 Mac 26X from my late father-in-law and the electrical wiring is a rat's nest. Nothing except the add-on pedestal instruments and the AM/FM radio works and I cannot tell what wire is supposed to go where. Further, I cannot find any wiring diagrams anywhere. I replaced the two batteries and bought a new A/B battery switch because the original is falling apart though I can tickle it into getting current through for the aforementioned items. The exterior mast wiring is dry-rotted, but no fuses or light bulbs are blown for the interior lights.

My hope is someone here can help.

Mark

Mark, I have the wiring diagram for my 98 on an external drive and in print. I will see if I can't get it posted or PM'ed to you. It looks like the web has been scrubbed of all Macgregor manuals that show the wiring diagrams. I had a couple of sites bookmarked but lost them when my hard drive crashed. Hopefully someone else will have a link for you as I am heading out on vacation for a week. I will see what I can dig up though. Rob PS: Mark,I found this link http://www.macgregorsailors.com/manuals ... l_2002.pdf for the 2002 with the wiring diagram on page 22. It is a basic schematic but looks the same as mine. If you can trace and mark the wires on the diagram it should make it a little bit easier to track down the rest of the wiring. Good Luck PPS: You may want to think about just rewiring too.

You've got lots of things going on here.

Even if you could find a wiring diagram, who knows if any of the current wiring is original. Even the original wiring may not have been done exactly to original specs.

If it were me, I'd scrap it all and redo it from scratch. Or follow each wire, label it and then start over.



--Russ

Thanks, Rob - that looks like the same wiring diagram for the 26M. I don't suppose there were great reasons to change between the X and M. However, Ross is correct: my father-in-law made a complete mess out of the wiring and I think I am going to start from scratch. It can't be that difficult. Can it?

I've seen some really cool electrical stuff being done on this list.

Mark