Hi y'all:

We built a house boat with two Yanmar sterndrive engines LHA4 and
two Mercury Bravo Two drives. All purchased in the U.S.
Between engine and dashboards we needed to install extension
harnesses. These seem to have been made in the U.S. not in Japan.
On one harness the yellow and the yellow-white wire had been mixed up
and on the other harness a total of four wires had been crimped
mirrored instead of correctly. This was how the harnesses came out of
the factory. Instead of "Lub. Oil Pressure" the "Diesel Preheat" light
illuminated and on the starboard dashboard the "Water Temp." light
did not come up. Of course you cannot pull the crimp contacts out of
the watertight connectors and reorganize them without destroying the
connectors. Throw the harnesses away was not an option so we had to
cut the wires and reconnect them.
Not good.

When we did the first test of the engines and the Bravo drives the
starboard drive clutch did not engage. Error when hooking up the
cables? Not ours. We opened the Bravo drive and lo and behold: The
cable was not even hooked up internally. There is no way that it
came off accidentially during shipping. -- Factory fault.

So now I ask your opinion/experience:
Where has the quality control gone in the U.S.A?
Is really the contractor/shipyard supposed to do the Q.C. for the
factory? Who do they suppose to pay for the extra work?
Your comments are appreciated.

Kind regards, Eike Lantzsch
Capiatá, Paraguay