Electrical Question

[MMcneely]

There are two wires on my positive side of my coil- I believe the purple/ red stripe appears to be going to my ignition switch in the dash. The other wire is a violet/black strip and it appears to be going to my starter solinoid and is terminated with the Yellow/ red strip wire. The problem is the motor would start and die imediately so I jumpered from the positive side of coil to positive terminal on the battery. Motor ran fine. I put the purple/ red wire back on the positive side of the coil and boat ran fine again, I add the violet/ black wire and the boat runs and dies imediately. Any suggestion?.

 

[snapperbait]

Re: Electrical Question

Interesting.. Please tell us more about your engine like the year, make, and model...<br /><br />If the engine will start and run with only the purple/ red wire from the ignition switch, leave it disconnected and terminate the end of the violet/black wire, or remove the wire completely... I would check voltage at the coil with the engine off.. Should be around 10.5 volts.. <br /><br />The violet/black wire is there to supply 12 volts to the coil durring start up only, because typically, there is a resistor in the circut of the purple/red wire which drops the voltage to the coil to around 10.5 volts at low or no engine speed.... Then, as engine speed increases, the charging system boosts the voltage to around 13.5 volts thus allowing 12 volts to reach the coil... <br /><br />The reason for the resistor dropping the voltage to 10.5 volts is not to cause the coil to burn up by overcharging it at low speed, when demand on the coil is low..<br /><br />All that being said, some coils, mostly aftermarket high performance and some factory equiped coils, do not require a resistor and can handle 12 or more volts..

 

[MMcneely]

Re: Electrical Question

The motor is a OMC Cobra 4.3 LTR GM V-6 in a VIP boat. The voltage on the coil with out the violet/black wire is around 6vdc before starting and goes up to around 10vdc when the engine is running. My brother in law had the starter rebuilt before he brought it to me. He claims that it is the same starter and everything is hooked up the same. The yellow/red and Violet/black are terminated on the small terminal on the starter solinoid and the big terminal on the solinoid goes to the battery. I am reading a ground on the small terminal but I figured that I was reading it through the coil on the solinoid. BUT when the violet/black wire is hooked up to the coil it is getting hot like it has more of a ground than just a coil. Any Idea's

 

[snapperbait]

Re: Electrical Question

Bad solenoid..

 

[MMcneely]

Re: Electrical Question

Can you explain to me how the solinoid works?

 

[pconsolini]

Re: Electrical Question

The solenoid on the starter is usually called a solenoid-switch. It throws the starter pinion into engagement with the flywheel gear and at the same time closes the circuit between the two power leads (fat terminals on the solenoid, one connected to the battery & the other to the starter motor). I had to replace one on my starter after an indavertent dunking. The starter motor itself was OK but the solenoid switch had a permanent 400 ohm short across the terminals from corrosion I presume. It was easy to replace (3 screws) but the starter had to be out which wasn't too hard to remove on my engine ('88 OMC 3L). The solenoid itself can be had from several sources (got mine from Arco Electric).

 

[oldboat1]

Re: Electrical Question

If the solenoid was bad, wouldn't the starter be affected? <br /><br />(would also recommend ARCO products, by the way.)

 

[clanton]

Re: Electrical Question

Disconnect the wire at the starter, check termial, should be open, then when starter engages, termial should have 12 volts. If this not true , like above poster said solenoid bad or you are on wrong termial.

 

[pconsolini]

Re: Electrical Question

Oldboat1: If you were referring to my starter, I disassembled it, poured out the water, dried out the brush assembly with a hair blower, sprayed everything else with WD40. Got to this before any serious corrosion set in so it cleaned up well. The solenoid on the other hand, blew water out the mounting holes when you pumped the solenoid armature up and down and just generally looked bad. Since you couldn't disassemble it, I just put in a new one. Seems AOK now.