How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

[gkosel]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

No they did not charge the battery after the load testing. I put the charger on the battery over lunch and will try working on this again tonight.

1. I am getting a 12.4 reading from my voltmeter at the battery.

2. The next stop from the battery is the main circuit breaker on the starboard riser. I am getting about 11.5 to 12 at the circuit breaker.

3. From there, I haven't been able to find where the wires go next. My guess is to the starter. I will try to follow the wires further this evening.

4. Fuse Panel. Everything on the fuse panel from the main wires coming into the panel to the various switches including the ignition switch show about 9v.

I have cleaned the cables from the battery and to the circuit breaker. There were not bad to begin with, but I gave them a good wire brush cleaning and got down to some fresh metal.

Hopefully the charged battery will eliminate the problems, but I am not all that optimistic about that happening.

It seems like there is a loss in connection at some point after the circuit breaker, but how to find?

What do you mean when you say "follow your positive wire with you voltmeter, testin where you can"?​

 

[gkosel]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

I gave the battery a good charge today although it said it was fully charged when I hooked the battery charger up.

Still when I turn the ignition key, the starter would just click. I put the voltmeter on the starter and it was showing 13 or so on the red wire and I tested the yellow wire with the ignition switch on that was showing about 13 too.

After testing the starter, I tried turning the motor over again and this time the starter started spinning. I didn't let it go very far, because I didn't want it to start.

So, that problem appears to have resolved itself somehow.

However, I still am only showing about 9v on the fuse panel with a fully charged battery.

Am I going to have to take this into a shop and have someone look at it?

Not sure what to do. Any further ideas?​

 

[cjames]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

If you are reading a lower voltage at the fuse panel, than at the battery, you have a bad connection someplace. That would also explain the starter problem. Check the ground connection between the battery and the engine. Then, if youre still having low voltage at the fuse panel, follow the main ground back to the engine or where ever it goes, and check that connection.

To confirm, you could make a long jumper for your multimeter to reach back to the neg lug on the battery, and test positive at the fuse block. If you read full battery voltage, you have a problem with the black wire somewhere.

Also make sure the fuse block is clean and free of corrosion where the fuses fit.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

Turn on some things that are powered off your fuse box that draws a fair amount of current...like your blower and your nav lights.

1) Measure the voltage between the negative battery post and the ground of the fuse box.

2) Measure the voltage between the positive battery post and the positive feed at your fuse box.

Both of these measurements should be 0 Volts. Any voltage read is the voltage drop between the two points.

Also measure the voltage of your battery while these are on. The battery should maintain its charged voltage minus a little due to the drain.

 

[Tredeb]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

What do you mean when you say "follow your positive wire with you voltmeter, testin where you can"?

If you ground your volt meter to your battery, then follow the positive wires on your boat and test wherever there is a connection, you should be able to find the bad connection. Once you see the voltage drop, the bad connection will be there. As mentioned before, if you go from the hot side of your fuse box to your negative battery post and have good voltage, you have a bad ground.

You mentioned that you had good power at your starter. Make sure the connections at your starter are good. Is the power actually getting to the starter motor or is it only to the solenoid. You should be able to spin your starter is you bypass the solenoid.

It is odd that you have low voltage at the fuse block and your starter doesn't work. they should be different circuits. Have you verified that the battery connectors have good connection to the battery wire. Corrosion can happen internally and really screw things up.

Don't give up, you may and up spending a lot to get a dealer to track down an electrical problem. You will get it solved.

 

[Rob454]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

Ok forget all that. Take the neg and pos wires that are at the radio. NOW check for voltage. You shoudl have 13.4 v or as much as the battery has.
Now switch off the power and then check the resistance of the wires.
Get some extra wire and hook the radio straight to the battery. You shoudl have fullpower and radio should work. if not then the radio is not working right or you have something miswired. depending on the radio it may have a memory wire and a power wire and a ground wire. make sure youre hooked to the poer and ground wire not the memory wire.
if everything works fine then you have a wiring problem from the power panel to the radio hook up point
ROb

 

[bruceb58]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

You mentioned that you had good power at your starter. Make sure the connections at your starter are good.

Just measuring the Voltage at the starter really means nothing unless you have the circuit under load which means you have to be trying to actuate the starter while measuring.

You have to keep in mind that voltage measured past a high resistance will always measure what the source(battery) is supplying if there is no current flowing through the resistance.

That is why I reccomended in my previous post to measure the voltage drop while something is drawing current.

It is easy to equate voltage and current to the pressure and flow of water in a hose. Imagine you have a hose connected to a faucet with a nozzle at the end of it. You also have a gauge measuring the pressure in the hose. If you slighly turn the faucet on(equivalent of a high resistance) and keep the nozzle closed(no load on the circuit) you will measure the high pressure(high voltage) of the hose. If you now open up the nozzle(load the circuit) the pressure measured(voltage) will drop because of the resistance caused by the faucet. If you open the faucet more(less resistance) your pressure(voltage) will go up.

 

[cjames]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

its not that odd if he has a problem on the ground side of the system. I'm betting that its something simple, just being a bear to locate.

 

[gkosel]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

Thanks to all the help from everyone on this post, I finally found the problem that was causing my low voltage at the fuse panel.

It was a bad ground connection in one of the wiring harnesses. The wire end had been pushed out the back of the harness and wasn't making full contact when the harness was connected.

It still seems like there is a separate starter issue though. Usually the first turn of the key results in a click, whereas on subsequent attempts the starter will spin.

I have the boat setup in my garage now and not on muffs, so have not started the motor. I just turned the key long enough to see if the starter would spin or not.

Is this an indication that my starter may be going bad?

Thanks again for all the help on this thread.​

 

[cjames]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

Starter could be going bad, or it may have grounding issues of its own. is there a remote start solenoid? or is it on the starter? Not hard to remove the starter and bench test it.

 

[gkosel]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

I messed with this some more last night and the same thing happened 5-6 times in a row. I took the key out and put it back in again, and this time it turned right away.​

Sounds like my ignition switch is going bad huh?​

Are there any other explanations?​

Is there a way to test the ignition switch to see if it is the cause?​

I know I had tested the posts on the switch when I was testing the grounding issue and it was low, but I forgot to check it last night.

I am not sure what a remote start solonoid is, but there is a slave solenoid attached to the port riser, and another solenoid attached to the starter.​

 

[cjames]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

the key switch on the dash only closes the starter relay(or solonoid), to send power to the starter. If the relay(s) are closing properly, and power of some kind is getting to the starter motor, then I would not suspect the key switch.

I cant say it enough, check all your connections.

Are you sure you dont have a bad starter?

Also, if its a GM engine, the starter grounds itself through the case to the engine. if the bolts are loose, or corrosion has built, it can cause trouble.

 

[gkosel]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

I will check the connections tonight and see if I can find the problem.

I have been searching the forum for recommended battery sizes and it seems like the general consensus is that my 550CA battery may be underpowered.

I am planning on buying a 24V trolling moter later this summer and will get the appropriate deep cycle batteries.

For the starting battery, it will be running occasional stereo, almost always on Sonar/GPS, as well as the rest of the standard I/O accessories such as blower, bilge, lights.

I have a 4.3 OMC (not HO) motor.

So what do you guys think, is my battery just under powered for the devices it is expected to run?

If so, how big should I get?​

 

[88wellcraft]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

Hey guys,
sounds like a problem I had at one time and it turned out to be an ignition module(not sure if thats the proper name for it). I have the same engine and this module was mounted at the top of the engine towards the back. I could get it to start by jumping the terminals on the module with a screwdriver. Replaced it and its been fine since.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

Hey guys,
sounds like a problem I had at one time and it turned out to be an ignition module(not sure if thats the proper name for it). I have the same engine and this module was mounted at the top of the engine towards the back. I could get it to start by jumping the terminals on the module with a screwdriver. Replaced it and its been fine since.

He has a problem cranking! Not an igniton problem....yet.

A 550cca battery is fine for your size motor. How old is this battery that you have. By the fact that it is rated 550cca I bet it isn't a deep discharge battery is it?

 

[gkosel]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

According the punched out numbers on the battery, it was purchased in July of 2005. I believe that it said that it was a dual purpose marine starting battery.

I had it load tested and they said that there werent any problems.

Sounds like my problem is more of a slave solenoid or starter (or connection to) type problem than a battery it the 550 cranking amps is enough for my motor.

The reason I brought this up was others on the board have made comments such as 650CA not being enough for a 90HP outboard and suggesting 1000 or more. I figured with that kind of comment that maybe 550 was not enough for my 175HP I/O. I am not sure what my OMC manual recommends, but may check that too, just for curiousity sake.

I have a thread from Don S printed out that contains some good testing steps for testing these type of problems that I will try tonight.

I feel like I made some headway with the minor things (setting up the Lowrance and stereo), but took a step back with this new found starter issue.​

 

[gkosel]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

I took a closer look at my battery last night and it is a "Deep Cycle" battery purchased in July of 2005. Evidently it is not the dual purpose starting battery that I thought it was.​

It has 505 Marine Cranking Amps and 105 hours of reserve, made by Interstate batteries.​

Knowing more information about my battery, does that change anything?​

I used a test light to test my slave solenoid last night and followed these instructions from a post by Don S. to test these issues.​

Hook up your test light again with the clip on a good ground. Now touch terminal C of the slave solenoid with your test light and have your helper turn the key to the start position again. The light should light up?

​

I am assuming that turning the key to starting postion means all the way and not just in the on position. I didn't have a helper last night so was not able to test this. I will tonight.​

If it did, touch your test light on terminal A, if it lights, hook your test light lead to it, and put the probe on terminal D (the ground) if it doesn't light, then you have a bad ground for the slave solenoid and without that gound the slave solenoid will not work.

​

I tried this and it did light, so it appears that the ground on my Slave Solenoid is OK.​

 

[bruceb58]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

Don't use the test light...use the meter that you just bought. The light may light up with less than the volatge needed to actuate the coil of the solenoid.

 

[Sorrento 25]

Re: How to hook up accessories such as radios/sonar?

If you are getting a click or engine crank every time you turn the key your ignition switch and solenoid are working fine. The starter doesn't ever spin freely without cranking the engine does it?

The intermittent cranking is because the starter does not have enough power to crank your engine. This could be due to a bad starter or a bad connection in either the positive cable to the starter or the ground to the engine block. I would remove those connections, inspect the cables at the terminals for corrosion, clean the mating surfaces, and reinstall them. Checking the resistance in both of these cables after their terminations and connections both before and after this procedure might give you an indication of whether or not you fixed anything.

If that doesn't correct the problem remove the starter, have it tested, and hopefully it is bad. If not, there is a problem with the engine that is causing it to be hard to turn over.