Smoking wire?

[Dalorean]

I got a 1985 yamaha 40 on my first boat I dont know anything about it I just got the thing. I tried cranking it over when I got it home. Holding the ignition over,( battery not charged I think cuz it wasnt cranking the starter) I saw smoke, I checked and it was the plastic on a wire outside the motor down on the fin thing by the mount. It looks like a cable wire with two bolts on each end. What is this wire and why was it so hot??

 

[GA_Boater]

What in the world is "the fin thing down by the mount"?

Guessing it's part of the bonding system and it was smoking because there is a poor ground for the starter.

Did it start OK during your on-water test before buying?

 

[Dalorean]

Yes it started just fine and throttled great. And it did start when I jumped the battery after the smoking wire incident. I did forget to tighten the nuts on the actual battery I noticed when I put it in mYbe that had spmething to do with it? I'm trying to describe the part under motor that connects the propeller the verticle slender piece. That wire is behind that amd foes to where the mount is where the motor turns. Sorry I'm lacking descriptions I'm still learning.

 

[Scott Danforth]

I did forget to tighten the nuts on the actual battery

because of that, the high current had to go some where and probably burned up your bonding cable.

suggest if you have wing nuts on your battery, that you throw them away and get real nylock nuts and use a wrench.

also suggest you replace all the bonding leads on your motor now because you toasted them.

 

[Dalorean]

Oh yikes!!! Well crap how many are there? I'm hpping They just got hot I'll look it over though for sure. Thank you for this helpful info I really appreciate all of it!!!