Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

[modicon2]

Ok, where's what happened....

Boat started fine at the ramp, ran down river ~1/2mile and turned it off. After a few minutes I went to start it back up and it acted like the battery was dead. It turned over 1-time real slow then it just started to clickkkk when turning key. I have an extra battery not hooked up to anything in the boat, so I put jumper cables from this battery to engine battery and still acted like it didn't have enough juice...it turned over 1 time real slow and then nothing!
Another boat stopped, we hooked his jumper cables to my engine battery and same results (turned over 1-time real slow). Then UN-hooked all jumper cables and got pulled over to the bank, then tried one more time with just my original battery and it started.
Skied for another 1 hour...stopped the boat several times and it started back.

Why wouldn't it start while hooked-up with jumper cables?
Any ideas on the cause or things to check or any helpful advice would be greatly apppreciated! Wife was getting a little worried!! I'd like to fix something so this doesn't happen again!

Thanks

 

[JustJason]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

sounds like bad battery cables... bad cable ends.... loose connections on the start lug or engine ground or a combination of all of those.....
But.... boats run with those issues for some time tend to burn up their starters as well.

 

[thumpar]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

My first guess would be corrosion on one of the cable ends.

 

[modicon2]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

I was thinking the same thing (bad cable or connection)...so (and i forgot to put this in the original post) I hooked the jumper cables straight to the Starter Solenoid and it acted the same (one slow turn over then nothing).

Would hooking up straight to the starter (positive clamp to post on starter solenoid and neg clamped to an metal engine backet) eliminate "a bad cable or connection"?

Thanks again for all the suggestions/ideas...keep them coming.

 

[modicon2]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

The more I think about it .... i'm wandering if maybe my starter is bad.

Since it started fine several times and didn't start 1-time, I think the battery is good. Since I hooked jumper cable straight to starter solenoid and till didn't turnover strong, I think that should eliminate battery, battery cable and connections. That should leave the starter and/or cable between starter and starter solenoid.

Any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!!
Thanks

 

[Maclin]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

Make sure it is not hydro-locking by pulling the spark plugs and inspecting then cranking to see if water comes out.

 

[modicon2]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

hydro-locking?
I don't know what this means.
Can you give a little more detail on how to check and what it means.

Thanks again

 

[Maclin]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

Cooling water is ran to the riser then out the exhaust, and most engines even have a water jackt in the exhaust manifiold itself for cooling. The riser joint or exhaust manifold can leak and water can get into any cylinder that the exhaust vale is open on. If it is a small leak then the engine just keeps blowing it out the exhaust. Once the engine stops then even a small leak can allow the water in the exhaust manifold or riser to go into open exhaust valves while it is sitting not running. Water does not compress well and the engine turns over vary hard or not at all. Best case is it is a small amount of water and the engine expels it. Worst case is it fires on the good cylinders and tries to compress a cylinder with a lot of water in it and the water cannot compress so a rod bends or whatever else is weakest.

"....pulling the spark plugs and inspecting then cranking to see if water comes out....." is the simplest way to check for this.

 

[Maclin]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

My intent was not to alarm you, but it is one reason that an engine cranks hard after sitting for a bit after it has been run.

 

[buggiedad_67]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

just becaused you hooked up to the starter and it didnt trun over good does not mean your stater is bad, you could have a bad ground lead and cause the same affect, even a loose ground can cause it, while your were hooking up and takeing off you moved the loose ground so it make contact, clean and tighten all ends and try it again

 

[gstanton]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

Surprised no one has mentioned a bad starter solenoid. Seems to me that even jumping it from the solenoid terminals would still need to go thru the solenoid? I admit that I have limited knowledge, but still learning.

Don S. has an excellent step by step on here on how to diagnose this problem.

 

[modicon2]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

I've read Don S. step-by-step guide and it was very helpful, but I didn't find the problem because everything appears to be working now. The engine starts and runs fine now.
My concern/fear is that it will happen again and with "murphy" on my side...most likely happen at the worst possible time.

I guess at this point I'm just going to clean/tighten all connections and investigate/double check the ground wiring again. Mainly because this is FREE!
I'm going to stick a voltmeter in the boat, and after reading Don's guide if it happens again I should be able to find the problem.

If anyone has anyother ideas, please let me know.

Thanks Again Everyone!

 

[MikDee]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

Cooling water is ran to the riser then out the exhaust, and most engines even have a water jackt in the exhaust manifiold itself for cooling. The riser joint or exhaust manifold can leak and water can get into any cylinder that the exhaust vale is open on. If it is a small leak then the engine just keeps blowing it out the exhaust. Once the engine stops then even a small leak can allow the water in the exhaust manifold or riser to go into open exhaust valves while it is sitting not running. Water does not compress well and the engine turns over vary hard or not at all. Best case is it is a small amount of water and the engine expels it. Worst case is it fires on the good cylinders and tries to compress a cylinder with a lot of water in it and the water cannot compress so a rod bends or whatever else is weakest.

"....pulling the spark plugs and inspecting then cranking to see if water comes out....." is the simplest way to check for this.

I agree, Maclin has some good info here, better safe then sorry,,, I've seen this issue come up many times on this forum.

 

[littlebookworm]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

Definitely check for hydrolock. If that checks out OK, pull off each battery cable end, wire brush the ends and the studs they're connected to, Then reassemble them tightly. If you have wing nuts on the battery, replace them with nylon insert lock nuts. I've seen a numerous incidents over the years where cars and/or boats would not start with booster cables to a known good battery because of the quality, length, or attachment of the cables. This happened to my car last year evn though I was using high quality cables and my boat battery. The car battery had an internal short which cancelled the effect of the boost. This still sounds like bad/corroded battery cable ends. Good luck. Hy

 

[bamadave]

Re: Bad Battery? or something else electrical??

It sounds like a bad set of jumper cables to me. You know the ones, cheap corroded clamps. One of the constants involved.