Starter Short?

[jhub75]

Hey all, thought I'd run this through to see if there are any ideas of what might have gone wrong. The boat is equipped with a 2005 Mercruiser 3.0L Alpha Stern Drive.
The problem:
I heard a clicking noise coming from my garage the other night and when I went out to inspect it--I was suprised to discover the noise coming from my boat! After disconnecting the battery and when the smoke cleared (literally), I discovered that the wire leading from the solenoid to the starter had melted. Wondering how the starter/solenoid might go "hot" when the key was off and the boat hadn't been run for at least a day prior to this? I would appreciate any ideas or opinions, thanks for the help!

 

[solar7647]

Re: Starter Short?

WOW you got lucky you cought that before it burned your garage down!

If sounds like a short to me, maybe the soleniod just went bad. Test it and see what it says. It could have got wet.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Starter Short?

Ah, the reason behind have a main battery disconnect. The clicking you heard was after the starter was cranking for so long and burned itself out.

 

[TiredoleBoy]

Re: Starter Short?

Solenoid stuck and fried the starter. Lucky you caught it in time. This could be from a faulty starter or perhaps a faulty ignition switch. Disconnect the starter and check for power from the switch. I have sen ignition switches in cars do this before.

 

[jhub75]

Re: Starter Short?

Thanks so much for the advice. I'll try all your suggestions and let ya know what I come up with.

 

[jhub75]

Re: Starter Short?

I checked the solenoid and ignition switch and all were good, went ahead and installed a new starter and the engine fired up smoothly on the first turn of the key. However, about an hour later, the same issue came up--the starter again was getting a direct current from an apparent short somewhere in the system. I went ahead and let my mechanic take a shot at figuring out the problem and... long story short... it wouldn't fail for him. His best guess was that moisture may have made its way into the relay, which completed the circuit to cause the starter to engage. The relay was replaced and I haven't had any further problems. Thanks again for the advice and guidance, I appreciate all the help!