No power to Instrument Panel and Ignition switch!

[Huffzz]

Hello All, I'm new to the site. Just picked up a 1989 Four Winns Sundowner 205 with OMC 4.3L I/O drive and the boat ran and cluster worked when I picked up the boat. Well I got the boat home and was excited to clean it up and test out the stereo, well some of the wiring to the radio and amp were pretty much a rats next so I cleaned this up and made everything look nice and sounding great but in the process a random wire from under the steering wheel fell and arc'd out on a metal bracket and this is when I lost power to the cluster along with the ignition switch.

Now Radio, bilge, blower, and nav lights all still work. I checked all the fuses under the steering wheel and they are all good, so I moved to the engine and both 50amp fuses are good as well. My next step is to break out a volt meter to do some testing but just wondering if anyone has any other ideas as to what to check.

Thanks in advance
One bummed out boater!

 

[Huffzz]

Good day, well I have figured out what part of my issue was and it was a bad connecting on the fuse panel right where the ignition fuse is. The next issue is the boat will not stay running so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated again.

 

[Huffzz]

Okay update on this thread just in case anyone needs the info but it turns out it was my safety tether switch. Some how it good cooked and that's what there was no current going to the motor after I let go of the key. The way I found this out was I jumped my HEI distributor directly to the battery and boat would stay running after letting go of the key so at this point it was either the key switch or that tether switch. Went and bought a new ignition switch still didn't fix the problem so last resort was that tether switch and as soon as I connected that circuit and BAM boat would stay running. So anyhow that's what I went through to get this working enjoy!