Battery question

[Oshi]

90 model Tohatsu 70 hp, pwr tilt/trim, I have a question about my cranking battery. Striper fishing this weekend and was running my outboard for 20 to 30 minutes about 4800 rpm. I was playing around with the trim to see where it ran best. Shut the engine down and my cranking battery would not turn my engine over. It would just click. The battery is a diehard 550 cranking battery. Is this enough amps? Does the trim system pull a lot? The battery isnt but 2 and a half years old. It never gave me trouble with a Mariner 40 horse. Of course this did not have tilt and trim. Do I need to have my alternator checked? The motor ran fine when I hooked my deep trolling battery to it. Thank you so much for your time!

 

[JB]

Re: Battery question

Hey, Neil.<br /><br />Your most likely suspect is cables and connections in your starter high current circuit.<br /><br />Get a voltmeter and measure the voltage across your starter when you try to start. If it measures lower than 1 volt below the battery voltage at the same time, you have a bad cable, connection or solenoid. <br /><br />By measuring the voltage across each connection while attempting to start you can find the one where your voltage drops. Clean that one.<br /><br />Let us know what you find.

 

[tesmel]

Re: Battery question

IF you were able to start your engine fine from your troll battery, then I would say your crank battery was not being charged because of no alternator output. I would be reluctant to say that it is a bad connection, simply because you were able to start the engine initially. I would put a digital voltmeter across the battery while running the engine and check for an increase voltage of about 14v while revving the engine.Could also be a bad battery,have the battery properly tested at an Automotive Shop.<br />Terry