brooksville_rebel
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2011
- Messages
- 240
Hello,
A boating newbie so may seem silly or simple here but I just want to make sure I don't fubar things up.
We just bought a used pontoon. They lady had just put a new battery in on 4/29/13. We have had the boat two weeks maybe. Anyways the motor always turned over, battery seemed fine. Now last two times went out it was dead. So jumped it.
Now we are newbies and our 4yr old was on the boat along with our 5yr granddaughter. They like to flip buttons so figured they had turned something on or maybe I left something on. Charged battery, engine started. Things looked good. Next day dead again. I couldn't find anything left on, but still learning the boat so thought maybe something. Now the only thing I did was remove the old Maxxima radio/cassette deck to replace it with a new one. I have not hooked a new one up yet.
I did some research here and on the internet and did a parasitic test were I pulled the negative cable put the volt meter in series (probe to cable other probe to post.) and with Vmeter on at 10A there was no pull showing up. When flipped to mA every so often I see a flick to maybe 01 but wasn't steady so not sure if a pull or me shaking the probe but that seemed way small to drain it. Tho not sure. Would that small drain over nite ?
So I took the battery out and took it to Auto Zone. They allegedly put it on their machine. Said it take an hour or so. I left and later got a call from them saying it wasn't holding a charge. Okay made sense to me. So I called lady, she found battery receipt and I took it back to Walmart were she got it from. They did their test, says its fine, no problem with it. Now frustrated. So go pick it up. When I pick it up I put the Vmeter on it and it reads 12.77v. Okay. Left it in my van for a couple hours to test it latter. Its at 12.66v. Leave it over nite and this morning its still at 12.66v. So seems to hold its charge. Now I want to put it back on the boat but would like to JUST hook up the motor and not the accessories to it to see if it drains that way.
I notice I have 4 cables coming to the battery,2 red, 2 black. Now there is a thicker red/black set and I ASSUME that this is the cables to the motor and the thinner ones probably go to the console or some were were all the accessories meet up. Is that right ? Will doing it this way even be telling me anything ?
Sorry for the long post but want to make sure you smart guys have all the info to help me out.
Oh and the motor is a 2002 40hp ELPTO Mercury.
Thanks
Mark
A boating newbie so may seem silly or simple here but I just want to make sure I don't fubar things up.
We just bought a used pontoon. They lady had just put a new battery in on 4/29/13. We have had the boat two weeks maybe. Anyways the motor always turned over, battery seemed fine. Now last two times went out it was dead. So jumped it.
Now we are newbies and our 4yr old was on the boat along with our 5yr granddaughter. They like to flip buttons so figured they had turned something on or maybe I left something on. Charged battery, engine started. Things looked good. Next day dead again. I couldn't find anything left on, but still learning the boat so thought maybe something. Now the only thing I did was remove the old Maxxima radio/cassette deck to replace it with a new one. I have not hooked a new one up yet.
I did some research here and on the internet and did a parasitic test were I pulled the negative cable put the volt meter in series (probe to cable other probe to post.) and with Vmeter on at 10A there was no pull showing up. When flipped to mA every so often I see a flick to maybe 01 but wasn't steady so not sure if a pull or me shaking the probe but that seemed way small to drain it. Tho not sure. Would that small drain over nite ?
So I took the battery out and took it to Auto Zone. They allegedly put it on their machine. Said it take an hour or so. I left and later got a call from them saying it wasn't holding a charge. Okay made sense to me. So I called lady, she found battery receipt and I took it back to Walmart were she got it from. They did their test, says its fine, no problem with it. Now frustrated. So go pick it up. When I pick it up I put the Vmeter on it and it reads 12.77v. Okay. Left it in my van for a couple hours to test it latter. Its at 12.66v. Leave it over nite and this morning its still at 12.66v. So seems to hold its charge. Now I want to put it back on the boat but would like to JUST hook up the motor and not the accessories to it to see if it drains that way.
I notice I have 4 cables coming to the battery,2 red, 2 black. Now there is a thicker red/black set and I ASSUME that this is the cables to the motor and the thinner ones probably go to the console or some were were all the accessories meet up. Is that right ? Will doing it this way even be telling me anything ?
Sorry for the long post but want to make sure you smart guys have all the info to help me out.
Oh and the motor is a 2002 40hp ELPTO Mercury.
Thanks
Mark