25 Horse Evinrude Starter Amperage Draw?

[Mel Taylor]

My son has a 14ft Lone Star aluminum boat with a 1985, 25 Horse, tiller steered, Evinrude outboard on it. Starter button is, of course, on the motor

The battery is located under the middle bench seat.

He is doing some refurb work on the boat and needs to reroute the cables between battery and engine.

My suggestion was to mount a bus bar such as the one shown here: http://mandmmarine.com/bluesea150amperebusbar-1-1-2.aspx under a small shelf he has running between back and center seats, connect the battery cables to one side of the bus bar and connect the cables from the engine to the other side of the bus bar. Cables from battery to bus bar would be pretty much permanent and hidden. Cables from motor to bus bar would be hidden but easy to get to and disconnect if he wanted to remove the motor from the boat.

A further consideration is that this particular bus bar has terminals for lights and other small amp draw items.

Problem is that the bus bar is rated for 150 amps and we cannot find any information on how much amperage the starter on this motor draws. Does anyone have any idea whether a 150 amp bus bar will handle the amperage draw from the starter or not? Neither of us care much for the smell of melting insulation and overheated battery cables.

Maintenance and repair manuals seem to be particularly silent on this subject.

 

[samo_ott]

Re: 25 Horse Evinrude Starter Amperage Draw?

My guess is that you'll be ok. The only way to know for sure would be to get a current meter and put it on the starter

 

[beagleboy]

Re: 25 Horse Evinrude Starter Amperage Draw?

You have to consider voltage drop. The longer your bat. cable gets the thicker it has to be. So having said that why not run one single cable from the bat. to motor along with one neg cable directly to the motor. From the bat. run a wire to a fuse block to run your various other circuits. You may find this to be technically better and cheaper. From what I'm hearing from you, you're trying to use existing cables but they are not long enough. Above materials are available at any auto parts store.

 

[Mel Taylor]

Re: 25 Horse Evinrude Starter Amperage Draw?

You have to consider voltage drop. The longer your bat. cable gets the thicker it has to be. So having said that why not run one single cable from the bat. to motor along with one neg cable directly to the motor. From the bat. run a wire to a fuse block to run your various other circuits. You may find this to be technically better and cheaper. From what I'm hearing from you, you're trying to use existing cables but they are not long enough. Above materials are available at any auto parts store.

Your way is exactly the method I used on my 14 ft Mirrocraft and it works very well
but this is a different situation with different configuration on the interior of the boat.

Without going into too much detail, in this case it would be preferable from an esthetic standpoint to run it the way I suggested and actually easier to do from the standpoint of wanting to have the ability to remove to motor if he wanted too.

I had hoped someone else had done something similar and could advise us on whether a 150 amp rated bus bar would handle it or not.

 

[Mel Taylor]

Re: 25 Horse Evinrude Starter Amperage Draw?

Help, Anyone know the answer to this one?

 

[jasper60103]

Re: 25 Horse Evinrude Starter Amperage Draw?

Help, Anyone know the answer to this one?

As stated before, you would have to measure it to be sure.
I have an '81 25hp and I recall in the starter troubleshooting section of the OEM service manual, it says the current draw should be (or not to exceed) 30 amps under NO load. That said, I really doubt my starter under load would exceed 5x times that (150 amps). Just my opinion of course.

On a side note, last year I extended my battery forward (about 12 feet) to bow section, similar to like you're doing. I used a piece of PVC pipe for a bus bar so to speak. I just added two bolts for securing the battery terminal lugs and secured it to the boat. Just make sure your terminal bolts are seperated enough, and don't come in contact with the boat. I would share pics, but I don't have any. Hope this helps. Good luck.

edit: Oh, if you like this idea, here's the thread for reference from another site. Hope the mods don't mind. His solution is nicer than mine. Mine is sort of similar, but w/o the copper.

http://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5668&hilit=+bus+bar+

 

[Mel Taylor]

Re: 25 Horse Evinrude Starter Amperage Draw?

As stated before, you would have to measure it to be sure.
I have an '81 25hp and I recall in the starter troubleshooting section of the OEM service manual, it says the current draw should be (or not to exceed) 30 amps under NO load. That said, I really doubt my starter under load would exceed 5x times that (150 amps). Just my opinion of course.

On a side note, last year I extended my battery forward (about 12 feet) to bow section, similar to like you're doing. I used a piece of PVC pipe for a bus bar so to speak. I just added two bolts for securing the battery terminal lugs and secured it to the boat. Just make sure your terminal bolts are seperated enough, and don't come in contact with the boat. I would share pics, but I don't have any. Hope this helps. Good luck.

edit: Oh, if you like this idea, here's the thread for reference from another site. Hope the mods don't mind. His solution is nicer than mine. Mine is sort of similar, but w/o the copper.

http://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5668&hilit=+bus+bar+

Jasper,

Thanks. This gives us something to work with. I do appreciate the link. Any other comments or suggestions will be appreciated.