Battery drains, I think it may be the discharging at the Tach / Trim Gauges.

[Pauldeli]

New to the site.
Recently purchased a boat with a 1986 115 hp motor. Took the boat out today and the battery was deader than a door nail. I had recently charged the batteries. I have installed my other battery fully charged and put boat on the water. First thing i noticed was my trim was pegged up. Than my lights, wiper, fish finder were not working so i beached the boat to investigate. I noticed my tachometer gauge light was lit as well as the trim gauge light. in looking at drawings it appears there is a small amount of juice to these units all the time??? therefore running down my batteries. I believe the other gauges not working is an issue with ground on aluminum boat.

Any ideas from the group??

 

[gm280]

Re: Battery drains, I think it may be the discharging at the Tach / Trim Gauges.

New to the site.
Recently purchased a boat with a 1986 115 hp motor. Took the boat out today and the battery was deader than a door nail. I had recently charged the batteries. I have installed my other battery fully charged and put boat on the water. First thing i noticed was my trim was pegged up. Than my lights, wiper, fish finder were not working so i beached the boat to investigate. I noticed my tachometer gauge light was lit as well as the trim gauge light. in looking at drawings it appears there is a small amount of juice to these units all the time??? therefore running down my batteries. I believe the other gauges not working is an issue with ground on aluminum boat.

Any ideas from the group??

First thing is "Welcome to iboats, good to have you aboard". :welcome:

Now let's see if we can help you along. Not having any pictures or more info, I guess we can start at the battery itself. Take all the leads off the positive + battery terminal for starters. Now take each wire by itself and touch it to the positive terminal and look for any spark. The wire that does spark is your circuit that is draining your battery. You could even have more then one wire draining the battery so check all the individual wires and find out. Once you locate the sparking wire or wires, follow them to their respective circuits (devices) and see what is going on. There should be switches on each circuit for everything on your boat. See if those switches are good. That means when they are in their OFF positions there should be no power beyond that switch to whatever the switch is controlling. Check those things out first and come back and let us all know what you find... Pictures would be great too!

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Battery drains, I think it may be the discharging at the Tach / Trim Gauges.

A fyi interment lights are on a separate circuit not on the motor ing one

 

[Pauldeli]

Re: Battery drains, I think it may be the discharging at the Tach / Trim Gauges.

Thanks to the two replies.
After work went out to do more investigation. Hooked up a good ground and found power everywhere I touched that was metal. With the replies in the back of my mind thought "the only thing hooked to the positive side of battery other than motor was the bilge pump, disconnected this and grounded the boat(aluminum). Everything is now working as it should the bilge pump is shorted out, thanks again.

All the gauge lights work when the key is on.
Fuel gauge, trim gauge, cb radio, fish finder and tachometer all working normally. Battery no longer draining.

YIPPEE!!!!

 

[gm280]

Re: Battery drains, I think it may be the discharging at the Tach / Trim Gauges.

Great to hear you located your shorted bilge pump. Nice find and now you can boat again without worrying about a dead battery issues. Happy boating...