I just acquired an lms 332c to replace my backup 135 on the bow. I have one (332c) at the helm with an antennae connected. can I connect the yellow wire on data from the helm one with antenna, to the orange wire on the one without antenna on the bow, and connect the bare ground to get info to the front unit? Do I need to hook up the nmea power cables? I want the simplest way without getting another antenna, unless getting the antenna is cheaper than the alternative..any help would be greatly appreciated. If you can't decipher what I said, just tell me what I need to do...it does sound like I was talking in circles...thanks.

Steve, I'll be taking my boat to Chris at Classic Fiberglass soon for a minor repair on the bottom of my hull. If he can repair the three holes that the puck mount caused for a reasonable price, I'll give you first shot at it. I left the puck mounted, just in case the repairs would be too expensive... I didn't want three holes in a very obvious spot, it didn't look pretty.

Cool Derrick...I knew I knew you...Champion boards on BBC...small world...

Yep. I had my 332 hooked up to a 335 on the bow using the standard NMEA0183 wiring (yellow wire from the helm 332 to orange wire on the bow, and ground to ground). Then make sure in the settings that you have the same baud rate set on both units and that the helm is set to output NMEA 0183 and the bow is set to input NMEA 0183.(Page 151 of the paper manual, 159 of the PDF version).
You don't need the NMEA power connected on the bow unit if it's not connected to the GPS puck. If you do network them on the NMEA2000 bus, use only one unit's NMEA power, not both. The advantage of running the actual NMEA 2000 network connection is waypoint sharing. If you find something on the helm finder and set a point, you'll see it on the bow screen, and vice versa. I eventually networked my HDS8 to the 332 with NMEA 2000 just to get the sharing. They will not share map (card) info over NMEA200 though, just tracks/paths and points.
Hope this helps.

Thanks..I got it hooked up and working...that was pretty painless. I had an old wire from splicing mercmonitor into a Y on a Hbird . it was just long enough and it is shielded. Perfect, and I wont need to share waypoints...haven't up to now. I will just waypoint the crappie spots when I get on them...Appreciate your help.