Help, issue with ignition 2008 maxum 2400SR w/ 5.0mpi

[dannxc]

usually when I go to start my boat when I turn the key to on the dash lights up and the warning light beeps once then when I turn the key to start it fires right up. today when I went to start my engine to change the oil the dash lit up then when I went to start the engine it acted almost like the batteries were dead. I had a trickle charger on the battery for over a week so I was pretty certain that it wasn't a battery issue. I have full power for my stereo, blower, water pump, bilge, etc so my batteries are fine. when I went to try to start the boat again I get nothing, no dashboard lights, no beep, and no engine turning. At first I thought my ignition might have gone bad, but I re-wired it to work my horn and it honked the horn fine. I also checked the 15A fuse uder the dash that based on my wiring diagram goes to my ignition, the fuse looks fine. I then found 3 large fuses on the top of the engine, one was ignition, one was fuel pump and I don't remember what the last was, but they were all the same fuse so I swapped them around twice seeing if I could get any change and nothing. I then thought that it could have been the 50A breaker on the engine but that didn't appear to help anything either when I pushed the red button, which brings my to a question. Does the red button act as a test or is it a reset, it also has a yellow lever that is either tucked into the casing or sticks out, nothing on the breaker says which way the yellow lever should be? Moving on, I then though it could be my neutral safety switch, so I temporarily bypassed that and again, nothing. I also along the way disconnect and reconnected my main engine wiring harness in case it was loose or corroded. So, where do I go from here?? is there a simple fuse that I am not checking?? A quick background, I did have dead batteries a few weeks ago due to a cabin light being left on for several weeks when we didn't use the boat. when I got the boat home I jumped the boat and it ran fine, shut it down and put the trickle charger on it and left it. the charger said fully charged today when I got onto the boat. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[agallant80]

Re: Help, issue with ignition 2008 maxum 2400SR w/ 5.0mpi

Yeah I spent three hours trouble shooting this one. The red button on the 50A breaker is a test. Flip the yellow lever up. Let me guess the trim on the outdrive does not work right now ether.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Help, issue with ignition 2008 maxum 2400SR w/ 5.0mpi

a volt meter would be your best friend. Start at the starter and ask someone to turn the key. If the voltage is zero then move back to the solenoid and repeat test. If you got a low voltage reading at the starter then you have a poor connection that needs to be fixed. If you are not getting voltage at the starter side of the solenoid but you are getting voltage at the battery side then test the small wire that activates the solenoid to see if you have voltage there when the key is turned.
Poor connections can read ok and power low amp accessorys with out a problem but the start needs major amount of amps and the poor connection will fail and the voltage will drop until you release the key then the low draw items will come back on.
A full battery should read around 12.6 volts if you put the voltmeter on the battery and try to start the motor the battery should not drop below 11v or the battery needs load testing as it may have a damadged plate from when it was discharged (some battery chargers will report this as a full battery)

 

[dannxc]

Re: Help, issue with ignition 2008 maxum 2400SR w/ 5.0mpi

Yeah I spent three hours trouble shooting this one. The red button on the 50A breaker is a test. Flip the yellow lever up. Let me guess the trim on the outdrive does not work right now ether.

Trim still works. everything but the dash lights and the engine.

 

[dannxc]

Re: Help, issue with ignition 2008 maxum 2400SR w/ 5.0mpi

a volt meter would be your best friend. Start at the starter and ask someone to turn the key. If the voltage is zero then move back to the solenoid and repeat test. If you got a low voltage reading at the starter then you have a poor connection that needs to be fixed. If you are not getting voltage at the starter side of the solenoid but you are getting voltage at the battery side then test the small wire that activates the solenoid to see if you have voltage there when the key is turned.
Poor connections can read ok and power low amp accessorys with out a problem but the start needs major amount of amps and the poor connection will fail and the voltage will drop until you release the key then the low draw items will come back on.
A full battery should read around 12.6 volts if you put the voltmeter on the battery and try to start the motor the battery should not drop below 11v or the battery needs load testing as it may have a damadged plate from when it was discharged (some battery chargers will report this as a full battery)

I will give it a shot as soon as I can find some daylight, damn daylight savings. I had a meter out testing various things when I was doing my work the other day and it was reading 26v. Obviously this doesn't make sense but I didn't think anything of it immediately because it's a cheap volt meter and I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing. could that be an indicator of a short?

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Help, issue with ignition 2008 maxum 2400SR w/ 5.0mpi

if the meter was set to dc volts then the max it could read on one battery would be around 12.7 unless the battery was on charge or had just been removed from the charger then it should max around 15 volts. Theres a good guide on how to use a meter at the top of the forum under stickys

 

[dannxc]

Re: Help, issue with ignition 2008 maxum 2400SR w/ 5.0mpi

So after some more investigating with the volt meter i found that the problem was the 90A fuse at the base of the main starter solenoid. My ignition wire is connected to this fuse which is why i was getting no power to the ignition. I figured this out by putting the ignition to the on position and putting a wire from the positive battery terminal to the red wires that were connected to the 90A fuse. The dash lit up like it is supposed to, then i moved the wire to the other side of the 90A fuse and nothing. i removed the fuse and disassembled it and sure enough it was blown. It was probably more corroded than blown thanks to my leaking manifold. great that it's just a fuse, sucks that i now have to do manifolds.