Desperately need help!!!

[johnnylama]

Hello.....I'm really hoping to get some help with this.

I need to get my boat out of my slip for the winter, and have an electrical problem I cant seem to fix.
2001 18- Bayliner Capri
90 hp 2 stroke Mercury Outboard (3 cyl)
6 month old battery...fully charged

Boat sat in the slip for about a month without being started. Bilge pump/float worked perfectly during this time. Replaced faulty starter solenoid over the summer but had no start up issues since.

Went to start up to boat on the trailer and here's what's happening:

1. Turn battery shut off switch on
2. Get power to instrument panel, lights, bilge switch and horn
3. Try to trim engine down or up.....everything dies
4. Everything stays dead until i turn battery shut off switch off...and then back on again
5. Repeat from 1

Also same thing happens on number 3 above if I try to turn the engine over.

Although the battery is fully charged, I figured I would try the above again with a battery jumper hooked up...just in case. Same results.

I've repeated the same exact steps at least 7 or 8 times with the same exact results each time.

I am no good at tracing electrical issues so I'm hoping that my description of what is happening will be enough for someone to make some recommendations.

Thanks in advance.

John

 

[Alumarine]

Try removing the cables at the battery and cleaning the connections.
Also, the battery might be bad.Try a known good one.

 

[johnnylama]

thank you for your reply, but i dont see how this could help. I had the battery tested and it's fine. Plus I had a battery jumper box on and it performed the same way.

 

[Scott Danforth]

you did not read his post.

the first thing he stated was to clean your connections. if the battery tests fine, the cable connections would be my first place to look. clean all the battery cable connections (both ground an positive) with sand paper. clean the posts and terminals along the way. Then use electrical varnish to seal the connections.

it only takes a few milliamps to run your gauges, however it takes about 50 amps to run your trim motor.

 

[undone]

As already said, check all connections. This is very common, a bad connection can provide enough power to run small items, but as soon a high load is required the connection heats up and you lose voltage. It can be any connection in the system, check the battery switch, all grounds, anything inline leading to the motor, not just the terminals on the battery.

 

[NYBo]

Replaced faulty starter solenoid over the summer...

Here's a good place to start looking for a loose connection.

 

[johnnylama]

All very good and what should have been obvious suggestions.......at work now.....I'll head down to the dock later and see what I can do.

Thanks to you all.

 

[johnnylama]

I'll be checking connections as was suggested but I am curious why you all think it is, that everything comes back on when I turn the battery kill switch off and back on again.

 

[MH Hawker]

Because 99 % of the time its a bad connection.

 

[jc55]

I agree with the connections. Especially when adding a jump pack because you can still be connecting over a bad connection.

On a side note, I have had a battery switch go bad internally before. You can remove the battery switch mounting screws to get to the back of it and jumper it.

 

[roscoe]

Connect jump pack directly to the motor, bypass the battery, battery switch, and cables.


What kind of battery switch do you have?
Simple on/off? 1-2-both-off?
Does it have thermal breaker inside of it? Probably not, but I've seen some power mains with breakers in them.

 

[johnnylama]

I cleaned all the connections as suggested and started to get some life. As my good friend Mike always says "it aint broke until its clean and broke".

Then I focused on my starter/solenoid situation from the summer. Long story short I was able jump the starter and get the boat on the trailer. Problem solved for now. I'll be diagnosing the problem from my driveway when I get some time.

Thanks for all the advice!

 

[jc55]

And thank you johnnylama, for having the coolest screen name ever, lol.