turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

[dgbarber]

yamaha 200 twin 250 ox66 setup. after short run, if motors are shut down, stbd motor will not start. Turn the key, everything on the gauges light up and beep but then ... zip, nada. Now, wait an hour and starts right up! Both motors always start when cold and only one has this problem. Any help for this iboats forum newbie?

 

[rodbolt]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

zip,nada is a very poor description.
when attempting to start do the gauges remain on or do the go blank?
can you hear the fuel pump running at key on power?
does the start solinoid click when turned to start ?
is your battery cables 3 wire or 2 wire?
when was the last time all battery connections were cleaned and tightened ?

 

[dgbarber]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

zip,nada is a very poor description.
when attempting to start do the gauges remain on or do the go blank?
can you hear the fuel pump running at key on power?
does the start solinoid click when turned to start ?
is your battery cables 3 wire or 2 wire?
when was the last time all battery connections were cleaned and tightened ?

 

[dgbarber]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

Sorry for the vague description but thanks for looking and responding. When I turn key to on, guages "beep" , turn to start and gauges are lit up but nothing happens. Cannot hear fuel pump, but also cant recall listening. There is no clicking sound from the engine at all, it is silent. My setup is twin 2001 ox66 250 Yamahas with 2 batteries per motor, I am sorry to say that I do not know if it is 2 or 3 wire. Batteries were probably cleaned and tightened at the beginning of the season (May) but I'll go in and check that too. Again though, this only happens when motor is "warm"

 

[rodbolt]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

look at the cable and let me know, the 3 wire one had issues.
do you have a voltmeter and comfortable with its use? and is all the keyswitch and wiring factory yamaha stuff?

 

[dgbarber]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

Checked battery cables, terminals today. Terminals were in need of cleaning, definitely. Cleaned all using spray battery cleaner and brass brush, re-tightened all. Will run the boat today and see what happens. Rodbolt, if the 3 wire setup means one one positive and two negative cables, then that is what I have.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

the three wire was TWO 12V POSITIVE and a negative,
the two 4 gauge cables and one 6 gauge cable had some breakage issues, the 6 guage cable is the battery isolator lead. its to be used to charge a house battery seperatly from the engine battery. both the isolator lead and the positive battery terminal lead should go on the same terminal on a single battery set up.
the 3 cable battery lead is just that, it 3 cables molded together that go from the engine to the battery or battery switch.
one is negative and 2 are positive. if hooked up incorrectly expensive damage can occur.

 

[dgbarber]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

I think that the terminal cleaning worked and the motor starts after some use, but I am not 100% convinced. I will look at the connections at the battery switches and determine the 2 or 3 wire set up. The setup I described came from the twin sets of batteries where it seemed that two negative cables came from the terminal of the second battery.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

if its twin batteries the negative terminals must be bonded together with a wire guage not smaller than the largest negative wire, however thats hull wiring and not what we have been discussing.
I am or thought I had been, disscussing the engine battery cables.
unless the original yamaha cables that were shipped with the motor were not used.

 

[dgbarber]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

correct, I was looking at the hull wiring. The connections to the battery switches are not really very visible and all of the connecting cables are zip tied together. I need to get a little closer to see if this is the dreaded 3 wire setup. FYI, the boat was repowerer with the 2001 OX 66's this year using, I believe, the same wiring for the original VX250's but I recall my tech saying that he needed some adapter when mountng the "new" power

 

[rodbolt]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

only adapter I can think of would be a new tach, the pre 01 stuff had a 3 wire trim sender and 01 up uses a two wire sender.
the only engine I can think of off hand that used the 3 wire engine cable was the 3.1 OX 66 in the late 90's to early 2000's. the two wire will work fine you will just need to cap off the battery isolation wire or run a seperate lead.
all V6 yamaha since about 95 had battery isolator circuit built into the regulator assy. most folk dont even know its there and most techs dont either.
the issue with the 3 wire set up was the smallest wire was to the outside and tended to break and puncture the insulation of the large wire and corrosion would set in, can be a beast if the wiring is in a rigging tube from the transom to the engine.
the nice thing about an isolator is if its wired correctly it will charge the house or second engine battery while running off another battery.

 

[dgbarber]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

It did it again this weekend, I guess it's time to have my tech test every inch of cable and switching between the key and the motor. It is still odd that the motor will start after sitting for an hour or longer. The boat was wired for 1993 VX 250s and was repowered with 2001 v250 ox66. I honestly can not tell if it is a 3 wire setup. Rodbolt, Thanks for your help, hopefully you saved my tech hours of troubleshooting and guessing.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: turn key, beep and ... nothing. Solenoid?

have him perform the voltage drop test on the cables as per the instructions on page3-18 of the electrical training manual