yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke electrical problem

[deanop]

2001 Yamaha 115 2-stroke

I seem to have a bad connection somewhere, but I am struggling to find it. When I turn the key (without the safety clip in) on I randomly get either 1) no power to gauges, 2) power to gauges but no safety clip alarm, or 3) power to gauges AND the safety clip alarm. This last result is what you would expect if everything was fine. If I turn off and turn on, it alternates randomly among these different outcomes. Now, (with gauge power and with or without the safety clip alarm) if I try to start it or use the trim/tilt unit, there is a click at the motor (at one of the relays) and everything shuts off. A few seconds later, the power will come back on to the gauges.

I have checked the battery posts, the ignition switch harness and the starter solenoid connections and all are tight.

Any other ideas or suggestions to troubleshoot this one?

many thanks!

Dean

 

[Silvertip]

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke starting problem

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke starting problem

"Connections are tight???" But are they clean? Is the battery fully charged. Do the words "circuit breaker" sound familiar? When you lose power in your home chances are a circuit breaker tripped or a fuse opened. You reset the circuit breaker or replace the fuse. What you are experiencing with the click and loss of power is a circuit breaker tripping. Since it is apparently automatically resetting, you wait until it cools and eureka -- power comes back. So the lesson here is not loose connections, but rather there is an electrical issue such a major short circuit or a circuit overload. And why even bother fooling with the safetey clip. Insert the thing, leave it alone and then troubleshoot. The only time it needs to become disconnected is if you are thrown from the boat. I suggest you actually try to pinpoint the location of the "click" and then post a picture. What you think is a relay may be a circuit breaker. Beyond that we are helpless with the lack of information.

 

[deanop]

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke starting problem

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke starting problem

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Connections are clean and tight and the batteries are fully charged and new.

The only reason I added the detail of the safety clip alarm was that it was not consistently occurring so thought that it could be a clue for someone knowing more than I do.

I didn't realize that there was such thing as a resettable "circuit breaker" in a boat's wiring. I have checked all of the related fuses and they are all fine - no surprise since the power is intermittent only and unable to support a meaningful current draw. As far as the source of the clicking, it appears to be coming from one of the two solenoids/relays right next to the starter (but not the starter solenoid itself). I will post pictures when I can. For those of you familiar with the layout of these engines, there are two solenoids, one on top of the other, stacked next to the starter. The click sounds like it is coming from the top one.

I guess what I imagined was happening, was that when the ignition was turned to start or the tilt/trim switch was toggled, I could hear the relay closing the connection (the click) and then the high amperage draw of either the starter or the tilt/trim unit was too much for the fault somewhere in the circuit killing the instruments.

I will post pics as soon as I have a chance and appreciate any help on this.

 

[deanop]

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke starting problem

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke starting problem

Here's the picture of the stack of relays right next to the starter, taken from the port side. The click I hear appears to be coming from the top one, circled in red. When I put a meter across the uncovered terminal at 6 o'clock and the covered terminal at 4 o'clock, there is 12v until I hit the trim/tilt button at which point it drops to basically zero.

 

[99yam40]

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke starting problem

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke starting problem

Still sounds like bad battery or connections. Do a voltage drop test and locate where the voltage is going away at

 

[deanop]

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke starting problem

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke starting problem

As I mentioned, battery is new and fully charged...

I should add that the problem came on suddenly. One minute I was cranking the starter (I had flooded it a bit so was cranking more than normally needed) and the next second it all went dead. The whole system had worked fine the day before on the first outing of the season, and had been fine the same day, right up until it cut out.

I guess the odd thing is that engaging either the trim/tilt unit or the starter has the same effect. Since these must be on separate relays, it could not be the relay... right? It would seem to suggest that it is an issue upstream of the solenoids.

I will work through a voltage drop test and see where I'm losing it...

 

[deanop]

Re: yamaha 2001 115 2 stroke electrical problem

In case anyone else finds this thread, I thought I'd post the resolution to my problem.

After doing a series of tests to find where the resistance was coming from, I isolated the battery switch and high power lead to the starter. After pulling the switch off, I ran a jumper cable from the switch to the solenoid and it turned over as soon as I turned the ignition switch - trim/tilt also worked. This meant that it was a problem with the OEM cable from the switch to the engine. I ultimately replaced the connection at the switch which had heavy corrosion, by cutting it back, crimping on a new terminal and sealing it with heatshrink. I realize that the corrosion on this cable will likely continue so in some ways this is a short-term fix before the resistance builds up again (not sure how long this would take), or until I feel like spending $200 on a new cable from Yamaha.