Is my boat allergic to lake water?

[tandg96]

I have a 1992 maxum 2700scr with a mercruiser 7.4 liter that rarely runs! When I bought it last year it would start and run on muffs with no problems. When I take it to the lake it runs to temps and dies! My mechanic determined it to be a faulty coil. It ran once since then and ran 30 gallons of gas perfectly. I took it out today (after running on the muffs) and we made it 25 yards off the dock and it died. Here are my observations:

1. The batteries died real soon trying to start it after it died on the lake. Would a set of bad batteries make it die? I was only idling in a no wake zone. It did not seem to have juice to turn over real fast after this run. Also when I got home they were once again charged within 20 minutes. Could they be bad?
2. Could this be an electrical problem again such as another faulty coil. It started right up on the muffs in the yard as soon as we got home and ran 5 minutes then died. I then added another battery to the system and it started and ran as long as I wanted it run and ran perfect!
3. The alternator seems to be charging fine. Wouldn't this keep the boat running?

I seem to be duped with this boat we have had it out 7 times now and have to be towed in 5 times(and it always seems to be in the roughest water)! My wife and kids refuse to even go out anymore! I would love to sell it but feel it HAS to run before I can even feel right about turning over to a new family!
Has anyone ever run into something like this? I'm not real sure how this electrical system works. Any help would be greatly appreciated! At this time I'm willing to do anything to get the family out on the water with me!



Todd

 

[Eliminator]

Re: Is my boat allergic to lake water?

What do you mean it ran perfect after "ADDING" a battery? I have seen battery's both open circuit and short circuit, I would guess yours has a short. Try running it with the new battery!

 

[Uraijit]

Re: Is my boat allergic to lake water?

If your battery has a bad cell, it's possible that it's putting too much strain on the alternator, and killing things. If it's running fine with a different battery, it sounds like you've already found the problem.

Take the old battery in and have it load tested. Hopefully it's new enough that you can get it warrantied? Maybe at least get a pro-ration on it?

 

[f_inscreenname]

Re: Is my boat allergic to lake water?

I had a battery issue this spring. With the master switch on or off after sitting a day both the deep cell and the regular marine bat would be so dead that when you turned the key on the gages would spin all kinds of funky ways. The marine bat was bad and was killing it's self and the deep cell through the ground. A first for me.