Battery hooked up backwards. No life! Help!

[jjones0377]

I was stupid and was hooking battery up in dark, and misread the terminals and crossed wires. Made a pretty spark at the battery. Left it hooked up for a second or 2 then yanked off when I realized what I did. Most of what I'm seeing online is check the fuse near the starter. I do not have a fuse near he starter. It is directly wired to battery. I have no power anywhere now, except to raise and lower trim. No power to dash, also kills everything else, such as starter relay and accessories (radio/lights). Can anywhere help me where to start to begin troubleshooting and repairing this. 1988 Rinker Captiva 206

 

[Scott Danforth]

welcome aboard

what motor is in the boat?

if this is an I/O, there should be a large 50 amp breaker. if that tripped, try there.

plan on a few things being toast.

 

[alldodge]

Howdy

Agree need to know what motor

If it's a inboard or I/O look for a square looking thing on top the starter, this is a 90 amp fuse

 

[Silvertip]

Check at the battery. There should be a smaller pair (#8 or #10 gauge) wires besides the larger battery cables. That circuit powers all of the accessories in the boat EXCEPT for the instruments which are powered via the engine harness. That harness is also protected. If the engine is an outboard, there is a fuse under the engine cowl and it is usually inside a water tight connector-looking fuse holder. In the positive lead of the smaller pair, close to the battery there should be a fuse or circuit breaker. Check for power before and after the breaker. Reset it if there is a reset button. Replace it if there is power to it but not after it. You may have other electrical issues since reverse polarity is never a good thing for electronics. Many items are protected against reverse polarity but many are not.

 

[wrench 3]

We still don't know what engine you have but if it's an I/O it was the OMCs that had the fuses in the wiring at the starter solenoid. The Mercruisers around that year had a circuit breaker with a red reset button at the starboard side front of the engine above the fuel water separater. Volvo Pentas were about the same place, just a little farther back.

 

[GA_Boater]

jjones0377

Welcome to the forum.

Can you answer the questions about what powers your boat?

Its an I/O, but it could be a Mercruiser, OMC or Volvo-Penta. The three will have slightly different ways to find the problem and the fix.

 

[gm280]

Anything that gets powered without a key to energize it is the first items to check. The key switch is your only saving grace if there is any. JMHO.

 

[jjones0377]

Somehow I got unsubscribed from this post! Sorry everyone that's has helped so far.
What I have:
88 Rinker Captiva 206
I/O 4.3L V6 Mercruuser

I have done lots of reading and research before posting g here. I have 0v to my dash at all. I only have 12v to my starter solenoid on the hot terminal only. And my power trim works. Everything else is dead.

I have no fuse or breaker on top of my starter. There was a motor swap in this boat before I bought it, so I'm told. Was a 4cyl. Now a 6cyl.

I have took the starter out and and had it tested at autozone. They said it's fine. Alternator they couldn't test. Didn't know how to hook up without guessing which post is which. He said their computer applies voltage based on model of the alternator and was unable find the model in the computer. (Assuming because it's marine).

My purple wire that normally feeds my 12v under dash. Has 0v. Both ends of the wire look good. No charring or frying on the ends. (Not to say somewhere in the harness didn't melt or fry).

If I hook up my meter to the S wire on my starter solenoid and other lead to my purple wire. I have continuity. Same when I put it to the negative (black) wire under the dash. Continuity to the S terminal on the start solenoid. I also think I have continuity from the post that goes inside the start from the solenoid. To ground. Which I'm not certain that's right either.

Even though autozone said the starter itself is good (I did watch the starter activate and turn when he did it. Sometimes it hesitated before engaging the gear. Could the solenoid still bad? He didn't hook any wire to the terminal the purple wire hooks to.

 

[alldodge]

My purple wire that normally feeds my 12v under dash. Has 0V

Find the Red/Purple wire on the key switch, then follow it back to find the inline fuse. It should be 20amp

 

[km1125]

See some of those earlier posts and look at what the post fuses look like. They do not look like a conventional fuse, just like a little plastic block. My friend did the same thing on his boat (but his batteries caught fire!) and his problem was one of those small plastic block fuses on the starter solenoid post.

 

[jjones0377]

I don't have any blocks (fuses or breakers) anywhere. I've looked and looked. The purple wire under my dash that daisy chains goes into the factory wiring harness and without cracking open. There's no good way to get into it to check for inline fuse. Other than that. I didn't see any fuses. I looked for hours this weekend and a few times in the past few weeks.

 

[jjones0377]

It won't let me upload any photos from my phone. But my starter is just itself and the solenoid and wire from battery directly attached to the solenoid. Nothing else inline there.

Does anyone have a standard wiring diagram of how the wiring through a boat runs? Again. 90-94 4.3L Mercrusicer V6

 

[alldodge]

The purple wire under my dash that daisy chains goes

Just to be clear of what I'm talking about, its NOT the purple wire, it is the Red/Purple (A red wire with a Purple stripe). The Red/Purple feeds 12V to the key switch. When the key is turned to ON, it passes the 12V to the purple wire. So the purple wire will not have 12V unless the Red/Purple does.

The 20 amp fuse is NOT in a block, it is in an inline fuse holder.
Look for something like these (note they may be different colors or shapes

 

[jjones0377]

Thanks for the clarity on wire color. I thought the purple wire was my 12v. So that helps there. I'll dig around more on that. But I did not see any inline fuse anywhere. I'm aware of what they do look like and how they are installed. Just didn't see any, anywhere. The "block" I referred to was what people have mentioned about looking on top of the starting solenoid.

And if anyone thinks I'm coming off rude at all. I'm really not trying. My wife tells me I sound rude all the time, ha! So I do apologize for that if I come across that way. I know online "chat" a lot can be misconstrued.

 

[wrench 3]

No Title

You can find the wiring for your engine at http://boatinfo.no/lib/mercruiser/manuals/mercruiser7.html#/278 on page 278. The wiring for the controls is on page 289.
Note the circuit breaker #8 on page 278. that's the one I mentioned in post #5.

 

[jjones0377]

Thanks for that manual. I do not have this circuit breaker. So not sure where else to go from here.

 

[wrench 3]

It would have had something similar on the original engine and any V6. Where do they have the starter relay (slave solenoid) mounted?

 

[jjones0377]

Thanks for your help so far everyone! I really appreciate it in these dummy times of mine. Should of hooked up battery with a flashlight on! Not in the dark. I'll bet I won't ever do this again! That's for sure! I'll make a trip to the boat this coming weekend and hopefully find something.

Does anyone think maybe my starter solenoid got fried? I have the starter off. And don't want to reinstall it, if possibility the solenoid is bad.

 

[wrench 3]

The solenoid would only kill the starter, not the rest of the system.

 

[jjones0377]

Right I understand that. But just wanting to make sure. Even though autozone tested it. It all fired up. Some attempts it hesitated to fire. But nonetheless. It fired.