Dead or almost dead Ignition circuit

[wakina]

Trying to start my 1996 5.7 L Bravo 3, throttle body injection. There is intermittent power to the ignition switch when first trying to start it. Then the circuit go totally dead. I jumperd from the battery to the battery in terminal on the ignition switch and the circuit is complete but the starter side acts dead. So I jumpered the solenoid terminal of the ignition switch and nothing but 1 click, if I keep tapping that terminal there is a distinct clicking in the gunwale behind or very near the shift/throttle lever. I am sure it is not in the engine compartment but in the gunwale near the helm. What could be there that sounds like a stuck or bad solenoid? The remote pistol grip shift/throttle lever is a 4000 MPC Gen 2 with integrated kill switch. Suggestions

 

[Bt Doctur]

don't suppose you checked the neg battery cable connection on both ends?
short the 2 large lugs on the slave and report the results

 

[wakina]

I checked all of the connections on both batteries, all were tight and looked clean. I did not check the connection inside the battery selector switch and I suppose there could be a problem in there but would assume it would be the outlet side of the switch where the hot wire to the starter leaves the switch. I also tried the batteries in the individual position and in the both batteries position, same results at all three positions

 

[Chrios]

Also check the neutral safety switch to see if its malfunctioning

 

[Bt Doctur]

that's all well and good but did you check the neg connection at the block? shorting the slave will indicate if there is a bad ground because the starter wont turn.

 

[wakina]

I will check the neutral safety switch tomorrow, I dont think the kill switch is malfunctioning because if I shut it off or to the stop position the clicking stops. The clicking in that area has me stumped.

 

[wakina]

I will double check the ground wire connections to the block from both batteries again tomorrow. I replaced the slave solenoid today only because of the clicking noise and of course that made no difference. That was before I determined the clicking noise was not at the engine but in the gunwale by the shift lever.

 

[Bt Doctur]

if you short the large lugs on the slave the starter must operate to spin the motor. If it dosent you have a bad cable or a bad connection. your system power comes from the starters main lug. sometimes thru a 90A fuse link and if wired directly to the main starter post ,goes thru the 50A circuit breaker, then thru the engine harness plug to the dash.

 

[wakina]

By shorting do you mean to just jumper across from one side to the other side with a heavy wire?

 

[Bt Doctur]

wire, long nose pliers, 25 cent piece, etc

 

[wakina]

I will try that tomorrow first thing. The boat has a 50amp breaker mounted in the same box as the slave solenoid.

 

[Bt Doctur]

if you find this at the starter, it is highly recommended to rewire the Red system feed directly to the main starter lug and just leave the alt lead (orange)on the 90A block

 

[wakina]

So here is the story!

No power at all this morning, both batteries tested at 12.5 volts. I started the whole routine again by checking all of the wires at the block and the battery terminals, all good. I decided to see if power was getting down to the starter from the battery switch and was hooking up the tester to the power going into the starter. When I reached in to attach the clip on the positive post on the starter I found the heavy positve wire was no longer attached. It had worked lose over the last 2 seasons as the engine was a replacement that I had done myself but had paid a local repair shop to install. They must not have torqued the nut on the power stud on the starter. All fixed now.

Thanks to all who helped by posting ideas as to where to start looking.