Boat wiring
 

I’m betting that the smart people on here can help me. I have a 1992 Century Resorter with a GM 350. For the first time ever, it’s sputtering and stalling and needs to be revved up to keep running. It was in for a new prop, driveshaft, and cutlass. It’s an inboard. One of the cutlass bolts has a ground fitting on it and i found a green wire near it that I believe was grounded there. I’ve since found another green wire that might need to be in that fitting as well, but I’m just not sure if it does. Interestingly, with nothing running or turned on, when I put the blower on, it only runs weakly and the oil pressure guage rises gradually. This feels like a missing ground? Would that make the engine run very badly? It was left out in the rain by the prop shop so there could also be a bad gas situation. I’m unable to find a wiring diagram and the wiring’s horrible to get to.
Do you all have any ideas?
Thanks,
Joe

Generally Speaking...............The green wire sounds like it's a grounding connection.

You could confirm but taking a DVM (or VOM) meter and measuring the resistance between the ends of the green wires to the Battery negative (-) terminal. If you have zero (or near zero) ohms resistance, the most likely it is a ground wire.

I think you’re right. Its general location in the bilge supports that answer. Do you think this could cause the engine to run poorly?

It takes positive as well as negative to complete circuits, a ground,while it gets no respect, is just as important as the positive, and more so, if it is a lightning rod!!:biggrin2:

The "poor functioning" of some components can mean it is seeking a grounding path, and "back feeding" through other devices. Continued use like this will result in some device(s) burning out.

It would be wise to trace this problem(s) down and fix them.

Your small block 350 being a '92, will have electronic ign. and possibly fool injection.:biggrin2:
If a ground is missing somewhere, like Roland stated, you can back feed and or overload other components besides the engines electronics.
It would be prudent that after you get the ground re attached, do check all your electronic/electrical systems
( communication, fish finders etc.) for proper operation before you venture out on the water.
Hope it is simply the wire.
I've seen some seemingly unrelated components damaged.:bigthink:

The green wire that goes to the strut is called a bonding wire. It just helps to stop electrolysis. It chase nothing to do with the engine problem . That sounds like a carb issue to me. Probably plugged idle jet and/ or water in fuel tank.

I just got back from the boat. I grounded the wire and the blower now works great and the guage no longer jumps when I turn it on. I put Heet in the tank and ran it. It ran better but still not great. When I put it in gear it didn’t stall immediately but definitely struggled. It did idle in neutral, which is an improvement. I didn’t see many adjustments on the Rochester Quadrajunk, just idle. Maybe more Heet?