Starter wires melting.

[Dancp24]

So I pulled my boat last fall and ran the engine to winterize it everything was fine. I unhooked my battery's and put them in storage for the winter. Last week I brought the fully charged battery's down to the boat and hooked them up. I turned the bilge pumps on to pump out a little water that was in the boat. After a couple of 30 sec or so I smelled and noticed smoke coming from my engine room. I quickly shut off the battery switch and waited till the smoke cleared. When I got into the engine room to see what was smoking thinking it was the bilge pump I found the wires going to my starter had all melted. I cut the wires back and spliced new wire on but can't get anything to work. And when I touch the wire going to the ignition to the battery cable it gets really hot really quick. Any thoughts? I am at a loss. Thanks!!!

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,..... Welcome Aboard,..... That's the signs of a Dead Short to ground,.....

The weakest, 'n most corroded links burn up 1st,.....

Ya got the battery cables on right, Right,..??

Whatcha workin' on,..?? sounds like it might be a fair sized ship,...??

 

[gm280]

Interesting, was it the large wire to the starter solenoid or the smaller one? You stated it was the wire going to the starter. But how can that be if the starter solenoid is not energized? There shouldn't be any current going to the starter unless the starter solenoid is struck closed. So we need further info about exactly what wire and where it comes from and goes to...

 

[poconojoe]

How did you connect the batteries? Hopefully parallel. Not series. How many batteries? Do you have a battery switch?
As Bondo said...it sounds like a dead short from positive to negative. You sure you hooked everything up correctly? I'm guessing it happened immediately after you connected the batterie(s). Remember, on these boats, not only is a negative black, but they can also be yellow. so all the reds go on positive and blacks and yellows on the negative terminal of battery.

 

[Dancp24]

So I think I found the problem. I believe it is the alternator. When i unhooked the large orange wire coming from the alternator and then hooked everything up nothing happened. As soon as I touch the wire back to the to the alternator the wires on the starter heat up. So I guess I'll try the spare alternator I have at home tomorrow and see if that is it. I'm guessing over the winter moisture got in it and shorted something out causing it to ground out? Has anyone ever heard of this?

 

[bruceb58]

Was the battery ever hooked up backwards?

 

[dennis461]

I'm betting he's got negative wire on the alternator output, positive on engine block.

 

[Dancp24]

I don't I traced I them all down the neg goes to the engine block and the output off the alternator goes to a circuit breaker where it ties into the wire that comes from the starter and one that powers all of my gauges. I'm pretty sure when I first hooked up the battery's they were right. I pulled them off very quickly when it first happened and didn't really pay attition to where they were, but I've hooked up the battery's many times and have never got them wrong. But I guess there always a chance.

 

[poconojoe]

You could have made a mistake. Nobody is perfect. Poop happens! Sometimes we do things that seem so simple or even things that are repetitious, that we don't watch what we're doing. Then we say to ourselves...what the #$%& was I thinking? LOL!