Well, turns out it was a couple of bad grounds up near the engine block under the cowling. Great news for me. Spanky went ahead and looked it over for me and gave the engine a thumbs up. He also installed a new impeller, so I'm good engine wise for the next year or two. Unfortunately for me, Dave found some bad too. Looks like I have a bad transom on the way. It's not gone yet, but the top 2 bolts are weak. I may "band-aid" it for the summer and take it easy, but it looks like I have a winter project coming, like it or not. Looks like I have a great boat otherwise. Maybe I'll brush up on my fiberglassing skills.

P.S. Dave's a great guy and very good, I would highly recommend him to anyone.

Also, thanks for all the ideas guys.

J

I think that some dealers do not think that they have to seal the top ones. I ordered a Ranger from the factory and when the dealer set it up he did not seal the top bolts. Just stupid in my opinion and I thought a Ranger dealer would know better. I caught it early and pulled all bolts and sealed them along with the aluminum trim cap.

Does anybody know how to test the temp sensors? I know where they are located on the engine block. One has a brown wire coming out, the other has a brown wire with a stripe. The alarm came back, we thought we had it fixed, I've been working a lot and yesterday was my first day out since it was fixed (we thought). Same symptoms, stick key in, turn to on position and continuous beep starts, and does not stop. Spanky and I thought it was a bad ground that was causing it, and maybe it was part of the problem, but this is weird. I put a call into Spanky but I think he is out of town for the holiday weekend. Any idea's anyone while I wait. Stump jumper, you mentioned there was a testing procedure, do you remember what it was. Or maybe does someone have a Mercury shop manual?

The solid tan is the warning wire from the sensor in the starboard cylinder head to the juction block on the power head on some models, where it connects to the tan wire from the harness. You can disconnect tan wire and see if warning stops. The sender or senders wire can short causing the warning alarm. That is how the temp sensor warning works, by going to groung at high temp. The tan/white stripe wire is for a temp gauge and the sensor in the port head is for a gauge.

If you turn key on to the run position and the warning horn sounds then more than likly its going to be the oil warning module I know its a solid horn but the module can go bad and set of a solid horn instead of a staggered warning or it could also be the warning horn itself.....OPTI

Alright guy's, need more advice. Went out this afternoon and tried to figure it out. Ended up just spinning my wheels. I tried unplugging the tan wire (temp) and it didn't effect the beep. I tried the blue wire (oil res.) and it didn't effect the beep either.

OPTI, is it possible that the engine is fine and the alarm itself is bad? Or is that what you mean? It seems to be running great, using oil, but still just the solid beep. How much is a new alarm module? Are there two alarm module's, one for temp and one for oil? Do you mind if I call your shop monday? Send me a PM if you don't mind.
Thanks,
Jay

Ill call ya in the morning...Ill get it fixed..

David, call me. Had tha same thing on Bobby's boat when we put tha 260 on it (Friday). Finally found it. Its probably gonna be under tha dash with a shared groung (tan/blue stripe) coming off tha harness. This may be tha same thing........T

Yep its very easy to start going in circles without sytematically eliminating componants by disconnecting each ones ground or power wire connection to isolate the problem. Oil warning has a module, temp does not on this model. Oil warning module makes sence, if alarm stops after disconnecting its ground. Tan/blue stripe ground? Humm. Going to have to look at some harness schematics on this motor. Good Luck

Tan/blue stripe is tha ground for tha buzzer for both oil and temp warning. Sometimes some guys will tie into it under tha dash for whatever reason but is not a good idea. That ground circuit needs ta be an "isolated" type ground for warnin' buzzer only. By this I mean nothin' between tha little term block on tha motor, thru tha harness, to tha horn. It can cause tha problem he's havin' and be a real pain ta find.......T

Thanks Gary and TLW for the ideas. I didn't think of it until now but after reading your posts, you may be on to something, the old owner has done a lot of stuff under the dash. I know he installed an old Humminbird fish finder on the dash, I'll have to see where he grounded it. Maybe he picked the wrong wire to ground to? My boats out at a storage facility so it will have to wait till tomorrow. The other thing I know the old owner did is move some switches around. The bilge switch went bad and he couldn't find a matching switch that looked right so he disconnected the front livewell switch and moved it over to the bilge pump. So the front livewell is still disconnected, but maybe he did something wrong there too? The old aerator pump wires are just hanging in the battery compartment (unprotected), would that do it too? I dunno, but I like the way ya'll are thinking, thanks for all the help. I also talked with Dave today and he might be in the area tomorrow. Maybe he'll find the mystery wire. Hope so . . . . gotta do some fishing soon . . . . feeling the itch.
Thanks again guys, I'll keep you updated.

Well OPTI turns out you were right all along. It was weird though. It was the oil module, but only on hot days?!?! If I checked it early when the weather was cool it would not beep sometimes, but if it had sat in the sun with that black cowling, it would get warm and beeeeeeeeeeep. Made it really hard to track down. Ended up doing a lot of phone time with Dave (Spanky) and want to thank him for all of his time he spent with me patiently answering all of my questions. Also, want to thank another TFF member TLW (The River Rat) for helping me over the phone. All you guys are first class and I really do appreciate it.
So here's what I ultimately did, I've gone to mixing my own gas. Bought a oil pump plug for $7, an "0" ring, some short machine screws, and a pipe plug. "All In" less than $20, and some time out by the curb pulling off all oil related parts, and today I reaped the rewards. Took the family and boat out all afternoon, did some running around, a little site seeing, swimming and of course some fishing, but most importantly had a blast and the engine is running perfect. WOO HOO . . . .
In another related post I'm going to ask some questions about how to properly set a jackplate. Not sure if mine is right.
Thanks again everyone,
Jeepthing