Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Thanks for that tip ShabahZ250, I'll try that as well.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Was out yesterday and today, and here is an update on my depth finder readings. I was running only the OEM depth finder this time, so no "crosstalk", no water in bilge and for most of the time it showed the correct depth. Intermittently though, it would start blink the last reading it had and after awhile (several minutes in most cases) it came back again with the correct readings. This happens when idling or on plane, there doesn't appear to be a pattern to when it happens. What I have not checked is connections at the digital display, so that is my next task. I am assuming I can get at them from behind the headrest in the bow section. This time I never got the 3 digit readings so I assume those must have come from the "crosstalk".

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

I don't know if your depth finder is like mine or not. I don't know what model mine is. But mine has a ring that is epoxyed to the hull inside the engine compartment and then the transducer locks in place onto that ring. And the air space between the two needs to be filled with mineral oil. I know mine was all over the place or didn't work at all until I did that. But yours may be totally different. Hope this helps.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Don't know if this is common or not but mine was driving me crazy until i finally figured out my problem. Tried water in the bilge, re-epoxying the transducer and cleaning the contacts at the head end. Turned out that it was a bad connection where the lead actually goes into the transducer. Only found this after taking it off for the second time to re-epoxy the transducer back down. The wire right at the 'puck' must have been at ome point crimped or kinked (during engine installlation or maintenence perhaps) and it resulted in a connection that worked most of the time but would interrmittently start blinking the last reading or some large 3 digit depth. turning it off and on sometimes would seemingly 'cure' the problem but usually not for long. after many attempts at fixes i finally ordered a 'new' transducer off the internet and re-epoxied it in place and since then everything has been fine. The transducer only cost me about 20 bucks and before I removed the old transducer for the last time I hooked up the new transducer and tested it by hanging it over the side and everything was good. Only problem I experienced from there was trying to get a good air bubble free seal on mounting the transducer. i found with the 3M marine sealant it would work at first but after a day or so it would stop working. Ended up using epoxy and everything was fine. just have to make sure you get good contact with the hull and you don't get air bubbles in the epoxy both when you're mixing and when it cures.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Well, another weekend on the boat another adventure with the depth finder!! adding water to the bilge didn't seem to help, of course the automatic bilge pump took care of that:mad

: anyway the depth finder seems to work great on plane or sitting still as long as your in water deeper than 6 feet, once you get in water shallower than that it go's to the lowest depth (like 6.8 feet) or so and then just blinks away at that last reading under 7 feet.

Once you go back into water over 8 feet, it work just fine again!!! really really frustrating!!!!

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Well I finally exhausted my efforts at getting my depth finder to give me consistent readings and gave it a good yank and sure enough it came off. I could tell that it had not been properly seated and must have had an air space underneath it. I cleaned things up ( a PITA working under the 5.7) but got it cleaned and seated it in toilet bowl wax ring as per stereoman405 post #15 in the Aftermarket Depth Gauge thread. I am going out next weekend and will see whether the wax mounting trick works for me. I was going to try this before epoxy just to ensure the transducer itself is functioning ok and then make the decision about epoxy.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Back from our weekend and still have the same old problem. The depth finder will start flashing the last read depth on occasion and sometimes stays this way for a long time and at other times it comes back after several minutes or less. There is no consitancy. Setting the transduce in wax seems to have worked but there must be a malfunction in the transducer itself or in its wire. I guess my next try will be to try a different transducer.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Who would have guessed it, first time out this year and the depth finder functioned perfectly. I did nothing to correct the problem since my last post. The only difference was the water I was in. Last season the water we were in was fairly green with algae (small lake), yesterday we were in a fairly fast flowing river (the Red River), it is fairly brown but no algae. Could this be the difference?

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

Just a follow-up to these post, I have run all season (put on about 30 hours) and the depth finder has functioned flawlessly. So if anyone is wondering whether the toilet bowl wax works as a seating agent for the transducer, I can assure you it does.

Re: Anybody having trouble with their OE depth finder?
 

I know this is an old thread, but does anyone have a picture of where their Transducer mounts? I am a new owner of a 2001 Z250 and the only thing I can find I assume is for my speedometer (which doesn't work) that has a black plastic wheel.