1984 E70ELCRD High Voltage in Water

[domaotc]

Hi, I had my 17 ft Whaler out the other day and it was running fine. On the way back to the ramp I noticed that the sea cork had fallen out and when I went to put in a spare (with the motor in neutral) I was getting a shock when I put my hand in the water; is this normal? Luckily I was able to plug the drain from the inside boat and the bilge pump cleared the water, but after that the motor kept stalling out when at a low idle. I'm not sure if the 2 events are related but I was hoping someone could shed some light on the issue.

 

[garbageguy]

Were you in a marina or anywhere else that could have had something leaking "stray voltage" into the water?

 

[pro-crastinator]

No - not normal
Just thinking out loud -
Spark plug wire loose and sending juice into water. (some whichaway)
Motor is stalling because its not getting fire to at least one spark plug.

 

[jakedaawg]

Try starting at night with cover off and see where you are getting the arcing from. Probably a plug wire or coil wit carbon tracks.

 

[domaotc]

Just an update. The top sparkplug wire had a divet in it, although it didn't seem to be significant (I'd upload a picture but I can't seen to find it now). I replaced the wire and had the boat out for 3 hours yesterday with no issues. For obvious reasons I didn't want to stick my arm in the water again to test for stray electricity with the motor running. Thanks for all the replies.

 

[tblshur]

thanks domaotc for the update so many people forgets that may help someone else :joyous:

 

[scrapper042000]

do you have a ignition switch on the dash or on the remote ? sometimes you get a boat with a funky rewiring job ,,,,,,and or test your black wire with yellow stripe for voltage should not be any in that wire ......black/yellow stripe is the kill circuit wire that goes to the key switch if it has voltage it can burn out your powerpack and yep your motor will not run very well .........and voltage leaking through the engine wiring harness into the kill circuit if theres voltage at that wire ......seems to be my findings and yes plug wire =miss ,wont idle etc sometimes you can hear a snap when a plug wire is leaking I have seen them jump to the hood latches on a v4 with a bad or cracked plug wire boot .........check obvious first