Speedo & Perfect Pass Don't Share

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05-20-2012, 11:02 PM
dbishop

Speedo & Perfect Pass Don't Share

I'm a new owner of an '06 Outback V. Love it so far except for the self-filling ballast problem that so many have obviously seen, given the number of fixes I've read about.

But today's issue is this: Perfect Pass (to the right of the tach) works, and reads the speed, but the speedo (to the left of the tack) doesn't work. Previous owner said it was always that way, but I've read that the PP and speedo can share the paddle wheel.

Looked under the dash, and I see where the paddle wheel cable plugs into the PP (Wakeboard Pro); it's a 5-pin flat connector. Nearby is a 5-pin flat connector that goes to the speedo and was obviously disconnected when the PP was installed.

I could fix this by splicing the wires, but it seems to me that I should be able to find a Y adapter for just this purpose, if I just knew who to ask or where to look. Or: I could make one myself (I think the female plugs are AMP 5-103957-4).

Questions:
Would the factory really abandon a speedo to install PP?
Speedo & PP can share paddle wheel output, correct?
Does that Y adapter exist (sure would make life easy)?
If not, does anyone have a pic they made or part numbers for the right plugs?

THANKS!

db
05-20-2012, 11:11 PM
wolfeman131

Yes, one speedo was removed to install PP.

What I suggest before splicing, etc. is to get a handheld gps and calibrate the speedo & PP. There is a small, silver "wheel" under the left side of the dash that will allow you to adjust the speedo. Make sure that is accurate, then compare to PP.
05-22-2012, 07:29 PM
dbishop

So... Splicing the wires is the way to do it? Nobody's made up a Y adapter so it's plug and play?
05-22-2012, 08:06 PM
wolfeman131

Ok, I re-read your post. The boat came with two speedos, one to the left of th tach and one to the right. So, in my previous reply, I meant that, yes, the right speedo was sacrificed to install the PP. However, the left speedo should still be operational and you are correct that they both run off the paddle wheel.

Did you try and plug back in the other 5 pin connector you found? Maybe the two connectors are already spliced somewhere back closer to the paddle wheel where you can't or haven't seen it yet?

FWIW - When I installed PP on my '08, I didn't have to splice anything, but my boat didn't come with the 2 speedos.
06-10-2012, 04:34 PM
dbishop

Ok... I traced all the wires; here's what I discovered... The factory wiring harness does indeed look like it supports simultaneous use of the speedo and PP.

On my boat ('06 Outback V), it appears that the Perfect Pass was not a factory installation (although it looks very close). Instead, the PP was installed with a new Airmar ST300 transducer, and the Airmar cable was run independently to the PP, ignoring the factory harness. There's an abandoned 6-pin Deutsch connector with an Airmar cable (clearly part of the factory harness) near the transducer, cable tied to a water intake hose.

I'm about to order a Deutsch connector (DTM04-6P), cut the Airmar cable near the transducer, and plug it into the factory connector. That should allow my Perfect Pass and Speedometer to both work.

A few questions for those more experienced:
* er, why would someone install a Perfect Pass this way? It disables the speedo. I'm hoping it was just because they didn't know better, and not because the factory harness has a fault.
* The Airmar cable has a tag on it that says cutting it will void the warranty. Maybe that's why the previous installer ran it all the way to the PP. On the other hand, the factory install clearly has a short cable run over to the Deutsch connector. Can someone verify this before I go all soldering-gun and wire-clipper happy and void a warranty, can someone verify that this is indeed how the factory does it?

THANKS!
06-12-2012, 01:52 PM
sybrmike

I don't have PP, but did install a complete set of gauges from an 05 Outback into my project Supra. Both speedos shared the signal from the single Airmar cable on the new paddlewheel. Mine was aftermarket (not PP) & had stripped leads that I spliced into the speedos.

If you don't want to cut the Airmar cable, just get the male and female Deutch connectors and make your own Y-adapter.
06-12-2012, 06:33 PM
dbishop

Quote:

Originally Posted by sybrmike

If you don't want to cut the Airmar cable, just get the male and female Deutch connectors and make your own Y-adapter.

Oh, I don't mind cutting the cable. I don't even need to make a Y -- I can just put the female Deutsch connector about a foot from the transducer and plug it into the factory harness. I just wanted someone to say: "yeah, go ahead, Dave -- if you do that it'll be just like my factory install! Look: here's a pic of mine as it came from the factory!"
06-25-2012, 05:11 PM
dbishop

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbishop

Oh, I don't mind cutting the cable. I don't even need to make a Y -- I can just put the female Deutsch connector about a foot from the transducer and plug it into the factory harness. I just wanted someone to say: "yeah, go ahead, Dave -- if you do that it'll be just like my factory install! Look: here's a pic of mine as it came from the factory!"

The Final Answer:
Everything works now; speedo & Perfect Pass. I bought a 6-pin Deutsch connector, cut the Airmar cable, installed the connector, and plugged it into the factory harness there by the paddle wheel. Then I connected the plug under the dash from the factory harness to the place marked paddle wheel on the PP. now the speedo and the PP both work.

So: someone must have installed the Perfect Pass aftermarket, and just ran the Airmar cable right to the PP, skipping the factory harness and thereby defeating the speedo. Dumb. But easy & cheap to fix.