Need help!!!! 4.3 mercruiser just clicking

[Bwitter10]

I have a 91 Dynasty Elon with a inboard 4.3 mercruiser. It was parked for the winter and ran before parked. Went to fire it up this summer and it was clicking at the slave solenoid. I put a new solenoid on it and it was still clicking. I put a new starter on it and it’s still clicking at the slave solenoid. I have also tried jumping it to see if it would crank and can’t get any cranks from jumping it at slave solenoid and even the starter and just get sparks from both of them. Battery is fully charged and has no voltage problems and all cables are fully tight . Is there something I’m missing. Circuit breaker seems to be fine. Is there a fuse somewhere I’m missing that might be blow and causing it not crank over?? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Chris1956]

There might be a red circuit breaker button on the engine, where the wiring plugs in. However, if you jumpered the slave solenoid and got nothing, I doubt that is the issue.

Have you tried to turn the motor with a wrench? They can get hydrolocked.

 

[poconojoe]

Clean all connections bright and shiny and check condition of battery cables.
Clicking like that makes me think you're not getting the proper voltage to the starter.
Are you positive your battery is good?

 

[Lou C]

I’d remove all the spark plugs and disable the ignition and see if it will crank. Also see if any water comes out of the cyls. If so you have some work to do....

 

[Bwitter10]

Should have mention I have turned the motor with wrench by hand, it is not seized. Also have removed spark plugs and found no water and seemed to be okay. Battery is good as I have charged it and put jumper cables on it while trying to start the boat.

 

[Bwitter10]

Am I missing an important fuse somewhere that may be blown and not letting it crank causing it to just click? I can’t seem to find a fuse or fuse box anywhere?

 

[Tim in TN]

Am I missing an important fuse somewhere that may be blown and not letting it crank causing it to just click? I can’t seem to find a fuse or fuse box anywhere?

Are you sure the battery is good? Should load test it to confirm.

 

[poconojoe]

Am I missing an important fuse somewhere that may be blown and not letting it crank causing it to just click? I can’t seem to find a fuse or fuse box anywhere?

I would think if it's clicking then it's getting power, but just not enough voltage to fully crank the engine.

Maybe your battery seems to test good, but under a load the voltage drops significantly.
You can have it load tested at most auto parts stores.

Or, maybe you have a corroded connection somewhere which is causing too much resistance.
Disconnect and clean every connection you can find, including grounds.
Clean the ground to engine block connection.

Can you possibly jump a wire directly from the battery to the starter to see if it cranks then?

 

[Scott06]

This looks like battery cable or battery issues. Clean boththe positive and negative cable connections to battery, starter, and block by flywheel cover (negative grounds block there), and take the battery and have it tested.

 

[Lou C]

Remember electricity travels in a circle, so all terminals must be clean and tight, including grounds on the engine. And if you have wingnuts holding your battery cable terminals on, get rid of them, they get loose and cause exactly this problem. Use either nuts on those terminals with lock washers or bolt on marine grade battery clamps and use those. I do the latter and that allows you to use the large posts like on an auto application.

 

[Bwitter10]

I have taken every cable I can find off and cleaned them and retighten them thinking it was a loose connection. Battery was just bought last summer and has 12.7 volts. I have found the black little ground wire that comes from the new slave solenoid I put on and was just taped off and isn’t grounded. But I’m not for sure if that needs to be grounded because last summer it was taped off because I never messed with it until now and the boat ran perfectly fine. Does that need to be grounded or is the solenoid grounded from the mounting bracket? Nobody thinks it could be a fuse blown?

 

[Lou C]

well if there is corrosion where the bracket bolts to the engine then yes, it should be grounded. Remember circuits travel in a circle. Bad grounds (really return path is the proper term) will do this. Yes the battery is grounded to the engine but if the bracket has corrosion where its bolted to the engine, that causes resistance so that relay might not be getting full current. Try running a temp jumper wire for ground right to the battery negative and see what it does. Even where the starter mounts to the engine has to be clean, free of paint and/or corrosion.

Also your battery cables, can have internal corrosion that's hard to see. I changed all of mine about 15 years ago when I put in a dual battery system, the boat manufacturer used the worst kind of junk cables possible. Depending on the age of the boat, I might change them too and use proper marine cable (Ancor), not automotive. They will not last in a marine environment (at least where I am in salt water).
Just saw your boat is a '91, if those cables are original I'd change em, and use proper gauge as well, like 2 gauge instead of 4. Also when you change starters upgrade to the newer style PMGR starters, they are lighter, crank faster and draw less current. I put one in last year and it starts much faster.

 

[Bwitter10]

Starter brackets and mount is fine as I just replaced the starter and cleaned everything before putting back on. Only things I have found are the ground from the slave solenoid by the circuit breaker was not grounded to anything and just taped to a bunch of different wires. And also found there is only one bolt and nut holding the slave solenoid bracket on. Other than that I can’t seem to locate the problem and keep just getting a single click at that slave solenoid while trying to start

 

[Lou C]

Have you measured voltage at your starter solenoid yellow/red wire terminal when someone turns the key to start? That in comparison to battery voltage, will tell you if you have a voltage drop.

 

[briangcc]

Stupid question of the day....do you happen to have your safety lanyard installed? Are you positive??

 

[poconojoe]

Stupid question of the day....do you happen to have your safety lanyard installed? Are you positive??

If that were the case it wouldn't just click, it would crank and sound like it was about to start, but it won't start.
At least that's what mine does.

 

[Lou C]

correct the clicking suggests low voltage to a solenoid, caused by corrosion (resistance), bad wiring or a rusty old solenoid.
most production boats come with crap for battery cables, and stupid wing nuts for the battery terminals, toss out that junk use proper marine quality and gauge cables and marine cable clamps and make sure all the return paths are good, use a PMGR starter and that will eliminate 95% of your no start problems

also, make sure your charging system is working, should see approx 14.2V at the batteries.

 

[Chris1956]

Those 4.3 motors have a ground cable on the back of the block. Hard to see if it is clean. If you haven't checked that, it is worthwhile.

 

[Lou C]

the negative cable is usually bolted to a stud on the bell housing. I have one on each side, for the 2 batteries separate grounds.

 

[Bwitter10]

Just got battery tested and old starter. Battery tested good and old starter was trashed. But I already put the new starter on it and it’s still clicking at the solenoid. Is it possible there’s a blown fuse anywhere triggering it to just click and not crank?