Got back to it this morning. I took all of the wires off of the corroded terminal and cleaned everything thoroughly. In the process, the red cable (battery +) broke free from its connection in the same manner that the orange one had already done. Completely corroded.
I put new connections on both the battery cable and the orange wire and hooked everything back up. I turned on my chart plotter and it read the battery at 11.6 volts with the motor not running. When I started the motor, this number jumped to 13.7!! Success! :clap2:
When i revved up to 1500 rpm the volts rose to 14.1. When I shut the motor back off (after running it for less than a minute) the battery was reading 11.8, which tells me it charged!
My only concern is that when I initially turned the boat on, I had the chart plotter (Humminbird 597 HD DI) running. When I turned the key to crank the motor, the screen went white and did not go back. I had to unplug it to turn it off. After I plugged it back in and turned it on it ran fine.
It has never done this before, and this is the first time I had it running during engine start up with a properly working alternator. Should this be a concern? Any ideas as to what could have caused this? I have a fuse inline with the wiring on the unit.
Anyway, the alternator works and I'm ready for an awesome vacation up in the Sierras. Thanks for the help everybody!
