Electrical Glitch

[haulnazz15]

Alright Ladies and Gents, I've got a small electrical gremlin to hunt down. Took the 'Twain out for the first water test since the rebuilt 351w and transom rebuild this past weekend. Boat fired up off the trailer without an issue, was a little finicky with shifting related to the shift-interrupt, but it still worked decently.

The boat ran great for about an hour, which consisted of varying rpms between 1500-2800 or so. No major issues to speak of. Within 1/4 mile of the boat ramp, I pulled the engine to idle/neutral and it stalled. No big deal in and of itself, but when I went to restart, I turned the key and got a thunk from the starter. Then nothing, and to add to it, the blower would not turn on. The bilge pump, and nav/anchor lights did operate however. Anyone have a clue what could be happening regarding the starting and/or blower?

Short list of new electrical items:

New battery
New battery positive AND negative cables (24" each)
Fresh rebuilt starter
New Rhule inline blower

We had an issue with the blower when we installed it, and I thought I fixed it by running a new lead from the fuse block to the blower switch. It functioned before startup and was running fine until the stalled engine mishap. I have a multimeter and have already check the continuity of all of the electrics from the blower/fuse block and found no resistance in any wire.

Bad battery? Possibly bad wire from starter solonoid to starter? (Remember it's a Ford so it has the separate slave) Why would the blower stop working when it is on the same fuse bus as all of the other instruments/switches?

 

[Lyle29464]

Re: Electrical Glitch

when you hooked up the new ground wire from the battery did you clean off the paint from the fresh rebuild?

My guess is you blower is grounded to the engine. The rest of your dash comes off of a buss.

Of course check the battery first.

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: Electrical Glitch

Well I've had the battery checked twice at wally world and it showed ~800CCA and 12.6V. I don't know of any paint on the solonoid or on the starter where the ground connects but I suppose it's worth a look.

I will probably grab a new starter-to-solonoid cable just to eliminate that 30+ yr old cable as well. Just seemed odd that the blower is grounded at the same spot as the rest of the electronics and it seems to be intermittant on it's operation.

I can't say they are directly related (blower and starting issue), but when one isn't working the other isn't working either.

 

[Lyle29464]

Re: Electrical Glitch

The blower draws more and may not work while other things will. the starter draws a lot and needs a very good connection.