Suzuki - No power at the helm, remote trim not working, no power to key switch

[GT11]

I have received over a dozen emails and comments from various sites after I had my loss of power problem and thought I would post a summary so you don't have to read the entire string in my other post. This post covers Suzuki outboards that have lost power from the remote at the helm to the engine.

Symptoms include:
Nothing happens when you turn on the key switch (or gauges function but engine won't crank)
Remote trim switch doesn't work but engine trim switch works
Other electrical devices seem to work fine
Trim or engine crank starts to function and everything goes dead.

Everything stated below is how my boat is set up; yours could be different. I have the 2008 DF225 but this problem and setup is used over various years and hp ranges.

What is the white wire? The white wire(s) is the source of power for the circuit that energizes the binnacle, gauges and provides power back to the engine from the key switch and tilt switch.

The first picture is the main engine harness (circled). It is under the starter on the starboard side of the engine. If you look between the brown and pink wire, you can see the white wire. The wiring harness exits through the front of the engine as one harness (black and roughly 5/8" in diameter). It runs under the floor and surfaces under the helm. In my case, it surfaces as two harnesses, roughly 3/8" in diameter each. Basically the harness is split under the floor and some wires go to the binnacle while others go to the gauges.

All the wires in the harness are routed to either the gauges or the binnacle, except for the white wire. It is split and one goes to the binnacle and the other to the gauges (I think) or to a power source. It could go to the gauges, then a power source but after finding the issue I stopped tracing wires. This can be seen in picture two, also circled. You can see the two white wires between my fingers that go to the helm. The connector that you see is the white wire that comes from the engine, via the main wiring harness that we talked about above.

Of course, the problem was obvious once I pulled the harness into the helm. I had 8' of slack at the stern and pulled that into the helm, exposing the poorly connected white wires. You can see the oxidized copper in the picture. No attempt was made to seal this connection by whoever installed the harness and the location under the floor stays pretty wet.

In summary:

If your tilt does not work at the helm AND the engine will not turn over (Other electrical devices probably still work fine), try the tilt on the engine.

If the engine tilts with the switch at the engine, you have either blown a fuse on front of the engine or you have a bad white wire connection.

Check the fuses on front of the engine (there are 2), if they are good, investigate the white wire. Check for voltage at the engine and at the helm. If you look at picture three, you see a male barrel type terminal that is covered with clear plastic (circled). This is a test point for the white wire at the engine. I hooked my meter up to this connector when I was troubleshooting the circuit. You will probably see low or no voltage.

If it looks like your cable splits under the floor, pull the cable to the nearest end and check the white wire connections listed above.

If you find it is the connection, trim the wires back to good copper (this could be 6" or more) and reconnect the wires. Test the tilt from the helm. If it works, seal the connection. If you have enough slack to leave the connection under the helm instead of under the floor, leave it under the helm.

I hope this helps. It took me some time to find the problem but once found, the fix took just a few minutes.