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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Electric start problem?

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Kirk McKay
Navigator

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USA
111 Posts

Initially Posted - 08/19/2002 : 16:20:41

I seem to be having starter problems on my boat. Any help/advice/guesses/opinions would be greatly appreciated! I've had the boat for almost two months now. It has an Evrd. 9.9 outboard on it. It's wired to the battery at the charger unit(by previous owner.) The charger gets plugged in to the dock power when we are there. This past weekend I couldn't get the motor to start with the electric start at all. It didn't even make a noise when I pushed the button. We had been away from the boat for two (too long) weeks and didn't have the boat plugged in to the dock. I think there might be a problem with the battery because it didn't have enough juice to run the VHF and the FM radio towards the end of the day out on the bay. I'm a little confused though because when I was trying to start the motor, I was still connected to the dock power. Shouldn't the electric starter work even if the battery is low--while it's plugged into the dock? Any other ideas?

Kirk

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oldsalt
Admiral

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USA
578 Posts

Response Posted - 08/19/2002 : 19:09:59

Not if your battery charger isn't powerful enough to serve as a battery eliminator as well as a battery charger. Many chargers just don't provide the amperage required to turn your outboard over.

Additionally, when you plugged the charger in, most of the current provided by your charger was absorbed into the mostly dead battery and not routed to the starter.

If your battery won't hold a charge after only two weeks away from the boat, you probably have a bad battery, or perhaps even a small short or drain on the system that shouldn't be there when the battery switch is off.

But I'd bet you have a bad battery.

Regards

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Bill Holcomb
Admiral

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USA
769 Posts

Response Posted - 08/20/2002 : 09:47:44

Hi Kirk,

Here's some thoughts:

You may have a bad battery. It's easy to test that by charging the battery off of the boat - then see if it will hold the charge.

There's a good possibility that you have some corrosion at your wiring terminals. Any corrosion in the terminals will drastically affect the amount of current that flows in the circuit. If there's corrosion, clean the terminals.

You might also have a short in one of the 12VDC circuits......or have left a circuit "on" while you were away. Two weeks with the radio or depth sounder on will sure suck the juice out of a battery. Take a look at the circuits checking for shorts.

Bill Holcomb - C25 Snickerdoodle #4839

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.