Starters Blown 2007 90 EFI Mercury

[phmatt]

Counting the original I have had 4 starters burn out.
Mercury has replaced the switch twice.
On a 2007 Lowe Pontoon boat. I have checked wiring and
battery cables the best I can.
Any ideas?

 

[JB]

Re: Starters Blown 2007 90 EFI Mercury

You have been attacking symptoms and have not identified the cause.

One possible cause is the way the starter is used. How long do you run the starter at a time?

 

[phmatt]

Re: Starters Blown 2007 90 EFI Mercury

Just a few seconds at a time, but I found the problem.

My negative battery post kept heating up.

I decided to replace the ignition switch and when I did,
I noticed not only was it wired incorrectly, the black ground
was detached from the crimp connector.

Under warranty a mercury machanic had replaced the switch last year.
Not only did he not check the wiring he patched into the existing
wiring. There were 3 connectors per wire on a 6 wire mercury switch.

I was not sure what to do, but I cut all of the wiring, and wired the new
switch matching colors.

The original wiring had black\yellow to black, I did black to black
and black\yellow to black\yellow.

Does that sound correct? The switch has push-to-choke bu the
4-stroke does not.


Installed new starter and so far so good. Probably 20 starts with
6 hours of run time this weekend. Negative battery post has no
heat.