dead battery?

[mercerfisherman]

Hi, not sure if this is the right forum or not but my question regards a battery. I own a 1984 50 hp Mercury outboard. I thought I charged my battery long enough prior to launching my boat but I'm not totally sure. My battery tester did show 2/3 charge. This "marine" battery has about 500+ cranking amps. Approximately 3 years old. It is supposedly the starter battery. However, my bilge pump, navigation lights and my livewell systems all feed off my starter battery. All the connections were tied together that way when I purchased the boat. To make a short story long, the battery started my boat just fine, but a day later it went absolutely dead... Now the battery won't even take a charge. Either my battery tester showed a false charge, or something is sucking my battery power or the battery is just worn out. Could a short in my wires deplete my battery power? I did notice that my bilge pump would turn on for only a few seconds and then turn off. But when fiddling with the knob I could get it to turn on for an extended period of time. Also, I found a mouse living in my boat. I suppose it is possible that the mouse chewed on a wire, causing a short. Lastly, because I have multiple connections to my "main" battery... what kind of battery should I buy and use when I replace my old one? Any thoughts, advice? Thanks.

 

[Thad]

Re: dead battery?

Afraid I can't help you with what battery to buy, but I can say that you give serious thought into installing a fuse block. That way, you have only one wire to the battery and then all of your accessories can be powered through the block. On top of that, everything will have its own fuse.
While at it, it would not hurt to go ahead and spend a couple more $$ and rewire all of your components.

 

[southtexas]

Re: dead battery?

Does the mouse own/run a lot of electronics? Margarita machine? Hair dryer?

 

[Thad]

Re: dead battery?

The fuse block was nothing to do with the dead battery persay, it was more of something to think about after the cause of the battery failure is found.

I guess I should add that if your battery is dead then it is either a bad cell or a short in the wiring somewhere. A fuse block will let you know a lot sooner if there are problems in the wiring, provided the proper fuses are used. A bad cell is just that, a bad cell. A dead battery that will not charge. Any auto parts store should be able to check it for you.
With a mouse on board, I can only imagine that he/she has chewed the insulation on the wires to use in a nest.