Yamaha F115 battery issues

[olds442111]

Hey fellas, I'm having an issue with the engine battery in the boat. I have changed the battery 3 times, so Im pretty much ruling out a bad battery.

Heres the issue. I can take a fully charged battery off the battery charger and pop it back into the boat, and head out for a day of fishing. after moving around a few times, I'll experience a low battery. I am now not able to leave the fish finder on, or anything else for that matter. Even after running it, if I fish for about a half an hour with nothing but the radio on ( no amplifiers ), when I go to start the engine, it struggles to spin. If I turn the fish finder on, it gives a low battery signal, which is set to 10 volts. once started, the voltage doesnt jump up to normal on the volt meter. It gradually gets back to reading about 13.5 volts, and stays there. Once I stop the engine and fish, I must turn off EVERYTHING, or I'm back to a low battery condition.

It just seeming like the engine is putting back enough power in the battery to crank it back up, but not fully charging it. Ive had boats for years, and have been able to leave the fish finder, radio, or even navigation lights on if its still dark out.

Should I be looking in the direction of a rectifier, or stator? Or something else I'm not aware of? Any ideas on the location of the suspect components?

The engine is a 2004 Yamaha F115. Any input is really appreciated. Thanks to everyone in advance. Rick......

 

[Bluefish]

Re: Yamaha F115 battery issues

try a voltage drop test.
place the red meter lead on the positive battery post,not cable and the negative meter lead on the positive post on the starter relay,hit the key, any voltage over about .5 shows a bad cable/connection.
next place the positive lead on a good block ground and the negative lead on the battery negative post.
hit the key, anything more than .5V indicates a bad negative cable/connection.
voltage drop can tell you just about anything you wish to know.

 

[olds442111]

Re: Yamaha F115 battery issues

Ok, I'll give this a try in the morning

 

[99yam40]

Re: Yamaha F115 battery issues

Sounds like a bad battery, too small of a battery, or you have something shorting out and draining the battery.
Have you had the battery load tested?
A good DC amp meter and voltmeter will help with the troubleshooting by measuring charging output and drain on battery

 

[olds442111]

Re: Yamaha F115 battery issues

I know it seems to be a bad battery, but 3 bad ones in a row? BTW, the batteries that have been installed are 1000 cca Interstate batteries

 

[yamatech43]

Re: Yamaha F115 battery issues

Why not just see if you are getting a charge for battery from leads.....??? You can even check with batts hooked up...check batt. voltage with engine off, then with engine running at idle, then at 2000 rpm....not complicated to first see this.....

 

[olds442111]

Re: Yamaha F115 battery issues

Well, it seems as though we had a bad positive battery cable. The cable was green and black on the back side of the Perko switch. Changed both the positive and negative cables, and ran all electronics on the boat for over 4 hours, with 12.2 volts still showing on the depth finder, and engine started right up. Will keep monitoring the battery conditon for a little while, but I think we have this solved

 

[robert graham]

Re: Yamaha F115 battery issues

Glad you got it figured out. I understand those battery cables can get moisture/corrosion inside their plastic sheaths where it's difficult to see or find. Guess about the only way to tell is by electrical testing of the cables. Good Luck!

 

[olds442111]

Re: Yamaha F115 battery issues

Thanks to everyone.