Chris Craft won't start

[cmmdrdave]

My 1995 C/C Concept 25 w/ 454GM motor & King Cobra outdrive. Would not restart after a warm up last week. Both batts were on but when switched on by key , gauges would not move. Cleaned and tested kill switch and every connection I could find but nothing. Seemed like no power to the helm, blower didn't even work.
After about an hour of fussing, I tested key once more and all jumped to life and saved the day. The boat is slipped in fresh water but has no leaks. The batts on this boat go thru an " isolater" I have never had one before, could this be the problem and how do I test. Any thoughts would be appreciated, hate to strand the family.

 

[alldodge]

My 1995 C/C Concept 25 w/ 454GM motor & King Cobra outdrive. Would not restart after a warm up last week. Both batts were on but when switched on by key , gauges would not move. Cleaned and tested kill switch and every connection I could find but nothing. Seemed like no power to the helm, blower didn't even work.
After about an hour of fussing, I tested key once more and all jumped to life and saved the day. The boat is slipped in fresh water but has no leaks. The batts on this boat go thru an " isolater" I have never had one before, could this be the problem and how do I test. Any thoughts would be appreciated, hate to strand the family.

:welcome: to iboats

Sounds like you have some corrosion somewhere. Start with the battery connections which include both ends. Battery, battery switch and starter, then do the same for the ground cable at the battery and engine block. Remove and clean the connections and pay close attention to the inside of the wire going into the terminals. Next go to the engine connector and see if it is clean, if you have a ground buss bar mounted in the engine room or under the dash check it

 

[cmmdrdave]

I'll go over everything again but I think I might change ignition switch as well. When I bought the boat I noticed the key " footprint" was at 2 and 8 vs 12 and 6 suggesting to me that someone had cranked the key hard over to maybe compensate for a bad switch . Appreciate the advice and will move on it. Summers are short in PA and I hate to waste daylight on downtime. This is my third boat w/ multiple batts but the 1st I've noticed an " isolater" inline w/ batts. Could this have played a part? Thanks

 

[alldodge]

I'll go over everything again but I think I might change ignition switch as well. When I bought the boat I noticed the key " footprint" was at 2 and 8 vs 12 and 6 suggesting to me that someone had cranked the key hard over to maybe compensate for a bad switch . Appreciate the advice and will move on it. Summers are short in PA and I hate to waste daylight on downtime. This is my third boat w/ multiple batts but the 1st I've noticed an " isolater" inline w/ batts. Could this have played a part? Thanks

No, I have had isolators for years, some I installed and some came from the factory. While the isolator can cause a problem with charging a battery, they have nothing to do with starting. Basically an isolator is a set of diodes. Diodes pas current in one direction only. When the alternator is running it is sending voltage to all diodes and they in turn are sending the voltage to each battery. When the engine stops, the diode keeps the voltage from the battery to go back thru the diode to another battery of circuit.

The voltage going to the key switch and the starter is not connected to the isolator. If a given diode in an isolator was shorted out it would allow two batteries to be drained at one time if something was being used sufficiently to drain the battery.

Example: House battery fully charged and the refrigerator was running, if left to run long enough off charge it would drain the house battery. If the start battery diode was shorted it would drain that battery as well.

If a diode opened, it would keep a battery from being charged when the engine was running. A battery charger is connected direct to the batteries and do not use the isolator

 

[cmmdrdave]

Thanks for clearing that up, now I understand. Appreciate your input... You know your stuff.