Battery Drain in the water only

[snagroms]

I have a severe battery drain when my boat is in the water. It has a New battery (dual purpose) that is/was fully charged. I'm only testing my motor at this point in my project boat so there is no accessory electrical in the boat. Here is what I have.<br /><br />1) 1978 Evinrude 175 with trim/tilt<br />2) Adjustable Jack Plate (electric motors)<br />3) Original wiring harness in tact<br />4) New batter cables, soleniod, and starter cap (brushes and holder from Arco)<br />5) Bilge pump with aligator clips (only connected 2 minutes during test)<br />6) Nav/Anchor lights with aligator clips (only connected after battery wouldn't start motor)<br />7) New OMC iginition switch with choke.<br />8) All motor electrical connections have been cleaned and checked.<br /><br />Ran boat for 1/2 hour no problems. Took a little to start it (1st time out since carb rebuild). Stopped to soak a shrimp in the bay for 45 minutes. Getting dark so we got ready to move out and the battery would barely turn the motor over. Cranked for 10-15 seconds (still learning the start routine) and then went to almost nothing. Would run bilge and lights. <br />We paddled the boat to a dock and while paddling noticed the water would glow blueish green when rowing quickly. Definetly got some power coming out somewhere. Hooked up a tow rope to my buddys boat. While I was pulling the loose rope in the water the same blueish green ligth.<br /><br />Connections at the battery are as follows:<br /><br />Positive: Starter Cable Red and Jack Plate Red.<br />Negative: Negative cable black, Jack Plate black, and Temporary ground (black) from iginition switch. Temporary because I don't have a neg bus in the boat yet.<br /><br />Trim and tilt +/- cables run from starter solenoind (+ red) and egine ground (- blk) to the TNT solenoid in the box on the back of the motor. <br /><br />Thats it! Need some suggestions on how and what to begin chasing this loss of power down!<br /><br />Thanks,<br /><br />ADDED ITEMS<br /><br />Tach hooked up from switched purple and ground. Tach does not work.<br /><br />Rectifier red lead is compromised and will be replaced shortly.

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

Could be a dead short but that would mean something shouldn't be working such as the jack plate or trim, are they?<br /><br />What water is glowing, the lake water or the battery water? I'm confused <br /><br />Are your zincs being eaten up?<br /><br />Aldo

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

Don't think you should have the tach on that purple wire, normally purple is 12v for the ignition, tach is usually a grey wire. I would remove that and then start pulling the other accessories off, jack plate, tilt, etc. See if you can get an ammeter to see if there is current draw at the battery and then just eliminate the circuits one at a time until you find the source.

 

[mattttt25]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

i'm just throwing a wild guess out that your battery wasn't as charged as you think it was, and your alternator is working or is not hooked up properly. killed the battery with the hard start, and some tilt with other electronics you used.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

Or the battery "was" charged and discharges rapidly because it has reached the end of its useful life (e.g., it needs replacement).

 

[islandboat]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

If you have damaged wires, temporary grounds and some "important" items are controlled by alligator clips, I would consider getting all of the wiring repaired or connected properly before even a short test run. You say that the battery only drains down when the boat is the water? Look for something that is in operation while the boat is in the water and not in use while the boat is on the trailer (gauges, charging system). Ten to fifteen seconds of spinning a warm engine seems a little long. May want to check tune up on engine.<br /> <br />I don't imagine the blue/green glow in the water is the electricity leaking out of your battery. Your battery doesn't have near enough power to light up the water around your boat.

 

[snagroms]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

Answers to your questions:<br /><br />Dunaruna: The jack plate and t/t work just fine. The light is in bay water not the battery. Just a little light in the swirl at the end of the paddle and rope.<br /><br />Boatin Bob: The purple on the tach is switched 12v + coming from the key. This purple aslo goes to my gauges needing power to work. Tach has good ground and Grey is on sender post. I'm taking the boat to the lake and will use the amp draw check removing 1 at a time.<br /><br />Matt and Upinsmoke: Battery was fully charged and is only 1 month old. I am pulling it and running it to parts store for a quick check. Never know if the thing is bad to start with.<br /><br />Trophy: Wiring (excluding the very temporary aligator clips) is good. The motor harness is orginal and I have checked it for continuity and visualy from main connector to ign switch. Battery cables are brand new 2ga. I plan on a total accessory side rewire with blue sea panel under the console to include proper fusing and gauge wire for all items. I'm perplexed as to what could be running while the motor is off though. The tach has no power showing while the key is off. My aligator clipped Lights and Bilge were not connected either. That leaves the jack plate and motor in the water with power applied to either solenoids or the jack plate switch. I'll draw test the battery disconnecting each individually and see. <br /><br />Yeah 15 seconds starting was a little long. I just rebuilt the carbs and now my starting routine must change. I was bogging down and drinking fuel like I owned a gas station which led to the carb-o-hual! Stuck floats sure got me a lot of gas to start it up before. I will work on starting better. <br /><br />I think that small blueish glow in the paddle wake and rope pulling was juice related from my boat. I tried the paddle on my partners boat and saw nothing. (just making sure I didn't have static build up in the air).<br /><br /><br />After the draw test I'll check all the associated wires and go from there.

 

[islandboat]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

A little trick that I learned for tracking down battery voltage drain is to remove the negative cable from the battery and install a test light or any small 12 volt light between the end of the negative battery cable and the negative battery post. Any closed circuts will allow voltage to pass through the wiring harness and as it tries to pass through the test light it will cause the light to glow. The brighter the glow, the more the resistance through the wiring harness. When you find the switch or gauge or whatever might be causing a battery drain and remove or disconnect that item, the test light will go out. <br /> Put a voltmeter on the battery and make sure the battery is being charged while underway. <br /> Have the battery tested with a good battery test device.<br /> Do you have a ground plate on your hull?

 

[Ralphy]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

Not to insult your intelligence, but regarding the green "light" that your are seeing. I have numerous times expierenced what your are describing. It sounds like what you are seeing are phosphorencent plankton. Take your paddle and swirl the water away from your boat and see if you dont get the same resulting "light". Its really a pretty cool phenomenom.

 

[snagroms]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

throphy I like the test light trick. will use that while a sit tied to the dock getting eaten by bugs. I've only run the boat 4 times now and did check charging volts the first time out. Seems it battery was showing 13.3 or 13.2 while underway 3/4 throttle. Does that seem right? The red lead on my rectifier is showing some age and I'm replacing it even though it looks to be charging.<br /><br />What do you mean by ground plate? Do you mean a negative bus bar attached to the battery or something entirely different? The only grounding (green wire) I've seen is on the gas tank I took out (bonding I think they call it.) <br /><br />ralphy. Yeah I was wondering if the light was critters or not. I'm not convince either way at this point. Would be cool to show the Kids if it aint juice related!

 

[18rabbit]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

Ditto Ralph. That blue-green glow in the water may be bioluminescent plankton in the water. When disturbed, they light up, actually a flash but there are so many of them it looks like the water is glowing. If it were the plankton you would have seen the water in the bow wake glowing as well.<br /><br />Personally, I won’t swim in the water after dark when that plankton is in bloom. Just what I need, my every movement being tracked by a visual indicator...think hungry people-eating things in the bay looking for dinner...just follow the glow to an easy meal.

 

[snagroms]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

nothing noted in the bow wake or when paddling my buddies boat. Hmmm...... I will do some bioilumnescence testing after I get my problems solved. That hungry people eating thing could be fun to catch, would be interesting bait though

 

[vipzach]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

I would almost swear you guys have to be nuts all this "glowing water" talk, maybe there are just aliens watching you!

 

[islandboat]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

You may want to properly reinstall all the green bonding wires in the boat. It bonds the fuel inlet to the fuel tank because most fuel inlets are remote mounted and attached to the tank by a nonmetalic hose. You don't want static to build up between the fuel nozzle and fuel tank while fueling up. <br /> On larger boats with numerous electronics onboard, a grounding plate is a piece of brass or simular metal that is mounted on the bottom of the hull (below water line). It allows static grounds to be connected to "the earth" via the grounding plate attachment bolts. "The earth" meaning the water around your boat. My boat uses the brass hull drain plug mounting bolts as the static grounding point. <br /> Static wires and ground wires on a 12 volt system are completely separate. Make sure the negative bus bar has a large enough lead to the negative post on the battery to handle every small wire that may be attached to it.<br /> 13 volts seems a little low on a battery charging system. Check voltage after a 10 minute run with an accurate gauge.<br /> That "glow" in the water is not your electrical system. Ropes and wooden paddles do not conduct electricity, unless you are dealing with about 25,000 volts or above.

 

[snagroms]

Re: Battery Drain in the water only

Getting a new tank put together now. Will bond the inlet (metal type) and the tank. I dont have a grounding plate on this center console. <br /><br />I'll have the boat back out in a few days after identifing the power drain. I'll also have a new rectifier on it. I'll check the charging then.<br /><br />Maybe the glow is aliens. Worse yet Gremlins!<br /><br />One other item here. I reread my manual tnt section since that part is in the water. The book shows to run the main +/- wires directly to the battery. The way I received the motor has the wires going from the main engine ground and the hot positive side of the starter solenoid and going back the the tnt solenoid. I don't see an issue but one never knows.