After sitting all winter, i finally got around to doing some work on my 18 ft Critchfield bay boat w/ 1988 Johnson 88hp spl yesterday. Changed lower unit oil, checked spark plugs, fuel, connections and fuses and it all checked out good. considering its age.
Charged batteries all night, disconnected charger from batteries and connected them to outboard. put the ears and turned on water primed fuel bulb and tried cranking her up. Nothing.....tried a couple of times and would only turn on for a couple of seconds and cut off. visually checked all connectors nothing looked out of whack. so i tried again, and again "on and off". but this time i saw smoke coming from my side and noticed a pos battery terminal with the cable laying on the floor; it had melted off the battery ????????
i stopped, turned off and disconnected everything. checked all fuses again, flywheel turned normally, power packs, harnesses, solenoid look good and all bolts on tight. nothing loose. since i was using the old battery that came with boat when purchased in 2007, i thought it had just gone bad, and swapped for a new one i had for spare/ emergency.
same on and off for a couple of tries and the same thing happened to that battery......terminal melted off......
Now, I've replaced the ignition switch (per seloc repair manual for my model engine), and added led lights, electric horn and trolling motor (has its own independent battery) last year and it all ran fine with no issues in the past.
Before i take it to mechanics and have to spend tons of money for something that might be simple or trivial that i may have missed, and aside from being out two batteries and having to replace them, anyone have any suggestions?
Charged batteries all night, disconnected charger from batteries and connected them to outboard. put the ears and turned on water primed fuel bulb and tried cranking her up. Nothing.....tried a couple of times and would only turn on for a couple of seconds and cut off. visually checked all connectors nothing looked out of whack. so i tried again, and again "on and off". but this time i saw smoke coming from my side and noticed a pos battery terminal with the cable laying on the floor; it had melted off the battery ????????
i stopped, turned off and disconnected everything. checked all fuses again, flywheel turned normally, power packs, harnesses, solenoid look good and all bolts on tight. nothing loose. since i was using the old battery that came with boat when purchased in 2007, i thought it had just gone bad, and swapped for a new one i had for spare/ emergency.
same on and off for a couple of tries and the same thing happened to that battery......terminal melted off......
Now, I've replaced the ignition switch (per seloc repair manual for my model engine), and added led lights, electric horn and trolling motor (has its own independent battery) last year and it all ran fine with no issues in the past.
Before i take it to mechanics and have to spend tons of money for something that might be simple or trivial that i may have missed, and aside from being out two batteries and having to replace them, anyone have any suggestions?
