Getting ready !!

Nothing like a little disappointment to start the season off with. Newbie boater here. Enjoyed the season last year like crazy, with a few hiccups. pulled boat out to prep and found a problem. Hoping its an easy fix and not a money guzzler (lots of freinds still shaking their heads on why we bought a money pit....but we love the time together on the water.

outboard force 120.

hooked up fully charged battery. radio blaring, prop raising and lowering. turned it all off, only on for a few minutes. Gauge reading over 13 volts. cleaned up boat for a bit. turned boat back on, gauge reading under 10 volts already. barely enough to raise prop back up to store for the week.

Not sure what is causing the quick loss of energy. Pulled out fuse to radio, to make sure it isn't sucking juice for the week. hoping to get get back to work on it next week but not sure where to start.

have checked wires for corrision, checked all fuses....looks all good.
not sure what to check next.

Re: Getting ready !!

sounds like a bad battery with a dead cell thats where the neg and pos are making contact and will drain the battery fast

Re: Getting ready !!

The easiest way is to charge the battery, and with everything off and the negative cable connected, put an ammeter between the positove battery post and the positive battery cable. If you use a multimeter for this, start on the 10A setting and work down until you get a reading or get to use the 1Amp scale. A reading of less than 1 Amp is bothersome, but won't effectively run the battery down.

if you do not have an ammeter you can do a rudimentary test. First make sure there are no gasoline fumes in the area of the battery. Now connect the negative battery cable. Now touch the positive cable to the battery. If you get a spark, you have a short in the wiring somewhere.

Re: Getting ready !!

My GUESS would be battery replacement. Load test the battery (most of the Auto Parts chains will do this free of charge) to verify.