Starter / Electrical Problem

[xenus7850]

I have a 2004 5.0 Bravo III and I am having a few different issues, not sure if they are related or not.

When I boat the boat, both Tach gauges, MPH gauge and Volt gauge (port Side) did not work. I have had a marine mechanic look at them and he stated that there is power going to the gauges, he stated that I needed to replace or repair the gauges.

The boat is new to me this year and I have noticed that the port engine gets harder and harder to start. The ignition is a stander 3 position turn (off, on, start). What is does is when I try to start the engine, nothing happens. There is power as when I move the key into the on position (1 turn) it beeps and then when I turn the key to the start position I can here something in the engine, but the engine does not turn over. If I repeat this step, eventually like magic the engine starts.

When I first noticed the problem, I had to only turn the key back and fourth about 3-5 times, lately it may be upwards of 20-30 times. My original thought was battery, so I replaced that as it was old anyway, but that was not the issue. My next thought is the starter, but not sure it is thought.

A guy from West Marine seemed to think that maybe a need to replace the key ignitions or since some of the gauges are not working, but getting power, he was more inclined to think it was a grounding issue. Does not seem that a grounding issue would affect the gauges and the starting of the engine. Please let me know what your suggestions are.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Starter / Electrical Problem

You might repost this in the I/O forum. As for your starting problem. I had this with my Mercruiser. Although I didn't definitively fix it (sold boat before), I think the starter solenoid was sticking. I used to install rebuilt marine starters, when I needed one, and I believe the solenoids are never renewed.

I would hear a faint click every time I turned the key, but no starter turning.

 

[Glastron_V210]

Re: Starter / Electrical Problem

Sounds like classic conduction imparment to me...in other words,

Remove and clean the battery post contacts, starter electrical connections and battery switch connections.

I think you will find a bit of magic occurs.


Chay

 

[Don S]

Re: Starter / Electrical Problem

Get your test light (or meter) and follow this.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=1102826#post1102826

 

[xenus7850]

Re: Starter / Electrical Problem

Here is a brief description of the 2 issues I am having, not sure what else to do, I am looking for suggestion. My boat is a 2004 Rinker 290 with twin 5.0 MPI Mercruisers. The first issue is a starting problem with the port side engine. Early last year, I started having issue in which I would turn the key and all that would happen is a single click. If I turned the key 3-4 times, the boat would start to crank slowly at first, almost like the battery was almost dead, then catch and go into a full crank and then start.

Towards the end of the boating season last year, the starboard engine started to click when I turned the key, after a few attempts, it would start no problem. I put the boat away for the winter with these issues and started to try and fix the problem today. Here is what I have done so far;

1. Cleaned all battery cables and terminal connections (did not due the starter cable, could not get to it). I did clean the ground to the block.

2. Make sure that all the batteries were good and fully charged.

3. Tested the voltage going into the solenoid with key off (13+ volts), when I turned the key, the volts jump all over a bit, went down as far as 2 volts.

4. Changed the key ignitions with new ones.

Now, I have 3 batteries in my boat, one for each engine and a house battery. If I switch the battery dial for the port engine to emergency start, the port engine starts no problem. When I do this, it is using the port engine starter correct? If this is the case, I assume that I can rule the starter out as the culprit. I am confused as why when I have the battery dial for the port engine set to on, all I get is a click and no start, but when I move it to emergency start, the boat starts.

Now that the boat has been started and ran for a while, it will start with the switch set to on, but initially it cranks slow, then catches and goes into a full crank and then starts. Just looking for suggestions of what to try next.

The second issue I am having is with my lower unit on the starboard side. Early last year I had an issue removing the drain plug, it was frozen like you would not believe, had to drill it out and when doing so, I damaged the threads. Took it to a shop and had them redrill the hole, but I had to make the hole a bit larger and use an NTP Allen head bolt/plug.

Filled the unit with gear lube, no leak through the plug. When I pulled it last year from the water, removed the plug to see if there was any water at the bottom and none. When I had the hole redrilled, of course some metal shavings went inside, I fully flushed the lower unit out to ensure that I got them all out, I had 5 gallons of diesel and the lower unit off and kept power the diesel through it and shaking the lower unit with the diesel inside until there were no more shavings coming out, took about 5 gallons of diesel to fully flush the unit.

When I pulled the plug today and drained the lube, the lube was very dark, not quit black, but dark. When I pulled the plug on the starboard lower unit, nice and green, almost looked fresh out of the bottle. Both units had new lube installed in them at the same time. Any ideas why the port side was so dirty? I thought maybe it was water intrusion, but I saw no signs of this.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Starter / Electrical Problem

1 : starting, using the emrg swith to have it work sounds like the batteries are wired wrong or the boat only has 1 batt switch and not 2 switches. you should have a batt switch for each engine. should say 1-both-2. That why you but a twin, 2 independent systems .Some manufactures skimp on cost.Try hooking up only 1 battery and see what works and what dosent.I`m betting you have only 1 main battery switch