Bad day out on the water.....

Does anyone happen to know what the orange wire that runs from the alternator to whereever on a Mercruiser 120 from 1982 being broken would affect? When I was out on the water the other day, I ran for a while, quite a while actually on a brand new battery and then stopped to go swimming turned the motor off and then went to start it back up and nothing, no click, just nothing. Well today I was getting her ready to go to bed for the winter and I noticed as I rubbed up against the alternator that the orange wire that is supposed to be connected to the alternator had broken off. Would this have been my problem? Thanks!

Re: Bad day out on the water.....

Generally the orange wire would be the BIG one and is putting out the power to charge the battery




Tommays

Re: Bad day out on the water.....

Duh---whenever I find a broken wire and something quits working---I would connect it and see how if it works--I'm not trying to be a smart a--, but???--good luck

Re: Bad day out on the water.....

I did, I went to Advance and checked it. I just found it wierd that the whole boat ran and started great all day, then just out of the blue wouldnt start. But it did have enough juice to use the trim motor. I just didnt even get a click from the starter. Nothing. Just wondered. Anyone know if a battery can have enough juice to run the trim motor but not enough to click the starter?

Re: Bad day out on the water.....

Re: Bad day out on the water.....

It takes very little current to keep an engine running. usually an amp or two.

When you try to operate the starter switch and close the starter solenoid the starter motor looks like almost a direct short (requiring a few hundred amps)

The trim motor draws somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-100 A.

Are you saying that it would (still ) run the trim motor and not crank the engine? If so then you also may have a ground connection problem.


Batteries do completely die too.

I have a 6.5L diesel GMC with 2 batteries.

Once I drove it around all day and made many stops. on the last stop I turned it off and went into a store and came back out in 10 or 15 min and it wouldn't even click the starter solenoid!!

Both batteries checked COMPLETELY dead!!!

Luckily I was at an autoparts store and they had the correct batteries in stock!


Regards,



Rick

Re: Bad day out on the water.....

Yup it did run the trim motor and didnt even click the starter solenoid. Thanks for the answer!!!! I will keep the battery on the charger tonight and fix that wire and then see what happens tomorrow. Thanks again fellas!

Re: Bad day out on the water.....

Once you fix the wire, be sure to check the voltage at the battery BEFORE you start the engine, then when you start it, run it up to 12 to 1500 rpm and again check the voltage AT THE BATTERY and see if it goes up.
Normally when that wire is broken it blows the diodes in the alternator almost immediatly and it won't charge.

Re: Bad day out on the water.....

Uh-Oh so when the diodes die, that means the alternator has died? Which means time to open up the good ole wallet again right?

Re: Bad day out on the water.....

I had the orange wire on my alternator break one day. I repaired it while the engine was running. The alternator was unharmed.