electrical problem, boat dies when I use the blower or bilge pump

[smtilford]

Hello, I am having a difficult time isolating this issue, while the boat is running, if I switch on the blower fan or the bilge pump, the battery dies, down to half a volt or less, and the motor shuts off. I replaced the alternator, and I have a brand new battery, I even switched to my spare battery, and the same results. I installed a new starter because the old one was toast. I am now at a loss. If you can help I would really appreciate any thoughts you might have! Thank you.

 

[Grandad]

Hi sm. I suspect that your ignition circuit is fed from a wire that is common also to your bilge pump and blower and voltmeter. If there is a poor connection anywhere in the line, the additional load of the small motors causes a drop in voltage in that line. When the voltage drops, there isn't sufficient juice left to maintain your ignition, so the engine quits. Check for poor connections anywhere in the circuit, including the negative wire feeding the distribution point. An undersized conductor can also have the same effect, but I assume that everything was working fine before this issue arose. - Grandad

 

[smtilford]

It's an 1984 19' Bayliner CX225 with a volvo penta 225d motor and a OMC 280 outdrive. I will pull out the volt meter tonight after work and start chasing wires, thank you for the starting points, Grandad! I was gifted the boat in February, and it took a while to get the motor running, I replaced the carbs, points distributor with an electric distributor, new rotor, cap, plugs and wires, spark plugs, starter, and alternator. Maybe in the winter I will rip the boat apart and redo the stringers and interior

 

[kmarine]

I have had this happen with a bad ground connection make sure your battery cables and other ground cables are clean. I suspect corrosion.

 

[smtilford]

There has been a lot of corrosion on all the parts I have replaced, I will pull all my grounding cables and wire-wheel all mating surfaces. I have not been able to run a volt meter on it yet, I came home to my 2 month old wanting to spend time with her daddy. Some things trump my toys! Thank you for your advice! I have found loads of great information from this site, and am chomping at the bit to pull the whole boat apart and rebuild it from the ground up. But I am pretty sure my wife would kick my ass! Maybe in the winter...

 

[smtilford]

Some photos of my boat!

 

[smtilford]

So I tested the primary ground wire, the volt meter showed 0.03... I disconnected from the block, cleaned all the connectors, re-assembled, and now it shows 0.00 I started it up, and turned on the blower fan, bilge, lights, and acc., it stayed running! But then the new alternator started to make a funny sound at the pulley. I had to use the original pulley on the new alternator as it came without one, is there a trick on putting this together?

 

[NYBo]

You have to make sure the pulley aligns perfectly with the rest of the pulleys. There are sometimes washers that need to be in the proper place, either over or under the pulley.

It's an 1984 19' Bayliner CX225 with a volvo penta 225d motor and a OMC 280 outdrive.

No such thing as an OMC 280. That's a Volvo Penta model designation.

Maybe in the winter I will rip the boat apart and redo the stringers and interior

If the stringers are bad, the hull could suffer catastrophic failure. It may also mean the transom is rotten. I wouldn't use the boat until it was verified to be safe to do so.

 

[smtilford]

Thank you for the comments NYbo! I will take it to a certified repair shop before sailing again. I am not sure if the stringers are bad, but I will cut away some of the deck and check them. I have not been able to work on the boat the last few days, I blew out a wheel bearing on the trailer coming home last week and it has been a bear to find the right type of hub assembly and then I had to cut off the rear race from the missing bearings. Fun times! Lol. I should get time tonight to pull the alternator and check the pulley

 

[smtilford]

I finally got the new hubs and bea r ings packed and installed, i had to take a break from the boat per orders from the Admiral. i plan on pulling the altenator off tonight after work and put ot back together correctly!

 

[smtilford]

So I was able to pull the alternator last night, there was not enough washers to bring the fan blade up into the key way that holds it in the same position as the pulley. I should be able to get it installed tonight and test tomorrow. Hopefully I have all the problems sorted out for now! Thank uy

 

[NYBo]

I can see your pix now. That's definitely a V-P outdrive.

 

[smtilford]

Thanks again, NYBo. I just downloaded the manual for it from the bayliner owners club site. As for the boat, I installed the alternator, and turned the key.... No power, no click, no dash, nothing... crap. I checked the battery, all good, I have hostage to the alternator, the coil, the relay. But no juice at the fuse panel our the ignition switch, fuses are good, kill switch on motor is not popped. Can you point me to a starting point? Thank you!

 

[NYBo]

The fuse panel and ignition circuit are usually not directly connected. But since everything worked (well, sort of) before the alternator replacement, you missed something on the installation. Perhaps a wire left hanging? Does the new alternator have the same number of electrical connections as the old one?

 

[smtilford]

The alternator was an exact duplicate of the first, but I will double check the connectors when I get home from work tonight. It ran before with this alternator, will, sort of, lol. Thanks for the advice!

 

[smtilford]

Hey NYBo, do you know where I can find the wiring diagram for the aq225d?

 

[smtilford]

...

 

[NYBo]

ftp://vk.od.ua/34124.pdf

 

[smtilford]

Thank you NYBo!

 

[smtilford]

So I finally figured out the electrical problem! Or I should say problems! The biggest problem was that the accessory 10 awg positive wire had been repaired by the previous owner quite poorly. They used a male/female plug connector and then wrapped it in electrical tape, and covered it with the rubber that covers the engine wire harness. It was still wet! I have not had the boat in the water for three weeks, and it never got wet up there. The connectors had disentigrated, and while I was fixing the ground wire to the relay, I apparently bumped it just wrong and it severed completely.

So I ordered a new set of 25' rolls of 10 awg black and red wires from Gregs Marine. I repaired the wire with a butt splice connector and heat shrink tubing temporarily. I also cleaned up all the ground posts that were very corroded, and replaced the battery terminal wire posts, the Neg. was really poorly installed.

I also replaced the starting relay, it was really corroded as well as it's harness.

I now have 14V while the engine is running! There is no significant drop when I turn on every electronic on the boat!

Now I have to figure out my timing and carb tunning, as it is really hard to start and I have to have the fuel wide open for it to start, and it does not want to idle. I am going to set the motor to TDC and see if my distributor is in the right alignment. I think it might be a couple teeth off. I might need to buy a timing light.