Battery riddle

[Priebe85]

Figure this out.

I hit the key to start my boat for the first time this spring. Showed 12vs. Made a spark noise and I lost everything. No instruments, horn, blower etc. Battery showed 13vs, fuses and everything else showed 13v. Just the dash wouldn't come up. Hooked the battery to a charger. Would only show charge at 5v for hours. But multimeter read 15v while it charged. I checked all the fuses again. All showed 13v. I randomly would hit the ignition but nothing. Then after checking the ignition fuse for the 3rd time and it read 14v. I hit the ignition. Motor fired. I had All the instruments working again and even the battery charger said it was charging at 13vs now. Everything is now normal and I didn't do ****. So that scares me that something hidden will show its ugly face again. Any ideas?

 

[fhhuber]

You have an intermittent connection and short circuit issue...

Unfortunately it may or may not be able to be found while stuff is working, but it can easily shut down the boat in the middle of the lake with no warning.

Time to start carefully tracing wires.

 

[Boomyal]

I had this exact same thing happen to me the last two seasons. It initially was intermittent. Then if finally became critical. It came down to a hard black glaze on the positive terminal as well as a like coating on the cable terminal. It would not clean off with a wire brush or sand paper which I done several time during the course of the issue. Once discovered, I ended up getting a terminal cutter and reamer to cut thru the glaze. Problem solved. I would always test the battery with a probe on the top of the terminal. One time I put the probe on the connector and there was no voltage. That is what lead me to finding the glaze.

 

[Grub54891]

You need to make sure the connections at the battery and starter are clean and shiny. After cleaning I like to use a spray sealer to help prevent future corrosion. You can use grease for that also. Make sure the grounds are clean at the back of the motor also. it never hurts to check under the dash at all the connections also, stuff comes loose from pounding the waves under there.

 

[Priebe85]

Forgot to mention that I would take the battery out of the boat to charge it. So maybe just a bad battery?

 

[Bondo]

Forgot to mention that I would take the battery out of the boat to charge it. So maybe just a bad battery?

Naw,... More than likely, corroded wirin' connections like everybody is sayin',....

 

[robert graham]

How old is the battery?....has it had a full charge maintained during off-season?....I generally expect possible boat battery issues after 3 seasons....