Battary Problem ???

[paulb211]

I just try to install my battaries for the year in boat. Battaries have fresh charge and are reading 12.77 and 12.70 volts. When I installed i get nothing from them. I have battary switch on boat. Has anyone ever heard of these going bad? Or better chance that I have a bad ground? I hope not the ground because it is not in good spot to get to.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Battary Problem ???

Welcome to iboats.

Sounds like a bad ground to me. If you installed two batteries and have a switch the common place to start would be the common ground.

 

[gcboat]

Re: Battary Problem ???

How old are your batteries? For a freshly charged one it should read over 13 volts - something like 13.6 or thereabouts. If they are old then all you are reading is a surface charge. And it's not so much the volts that turn over your motor as it is the amps. Take them to any auto parts store and have them tested - it's usually free.

 

[swordfish25]

Re: Battary Problem ???

check the wires on the starter post,and the contacts on the batt. switch.

 

[5150abf]

Re: Battary Problem ???

Welcome to iboats.

Ya, 12.7 from a freshly charged battery is pretty low, should be over 13.

The battery switch has contacts in it so that could certainly go bad and they are almost all sealed so no way to clean it but I would check everything else before I pitched it.

If you aren't getting any power at all you either blew a fuse or you have a bad connection/broken wire somewhere.

I would wire around the switch to eliminate that option then start checking wires and looking for fuses, solving wiring problem is never fun but is usually something simple.

 

[Splat]

Re: Battary Problem ???

12.77 volts indicates a freshly and fully charged battery. You will not read 13 volts from a battery just sitting there, unless it's on a charger.

BIll

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Battary Problem ???

Do you have the battery switch set to 1, 2, or BOTH?? If so, then you have either a switch problem, Positive and/or negative terminal connection problem, or you reversed polarity and blew a fuse or tripped a breaker.

 

[Provo5]

Re: Battary Problem ???

Check for power at the switch terminal, if its there you may as well bite the bullet and go to the ground terminal.

 

[boat1010]

Re: Battary Problem ???

I guess I'm not real clear what "get nothing from them" means. You obviously have a meter so when you read from the main buss under the dash do you read voltage? Do you read voltage after the battery switch? Do you have good connections? When you are reading the battery voltage are you reading from the battery terminal? Ya just need to start from the batteries and keep testing for voltage until ya lose it. It isn't a hard process just time consuming.

 

[bowman316]

Re: Battary Problem ???

Are you guys saying you need to ground your battery to the boat hull?

Or just use the negative teminal as the ground?

I thought it was impossible to have a chassis ground on a boat?

 

[boat1010]

Re: Battary Problem ???

The negative has to be taken everyplace in a wire. unlike a car with a metal chassis. You are correct the negative terminal is ground but everywhere on the boat must have that negative also. So you have to have the negative wire ran up to the console. and has to be to the motor. Everywhere you have something that runs on electricity has to have a negative and a positive.