mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

[floatmiboat]

Hi,
Took my boat out today, seemed a bit feeble when I started it, now when I turn the key I get a click. My starter is only a couple of months old so maybe it's the battery or solenoid. Does anyone know the procedure to test it with a multi meter? I'm not sure which setting to use? It's a 97 with quicksilver controls. Thanks

 

[CharlieB]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

Check voltage drop. Start at the battery, again when cranking, move to next connection and repeat and so on til you get to the starter.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

The easiest thing to do is simply "charge" the battery. Then try it. A click from the solenoid is generally a sign of a weak or dying battery or bad battery cable connections. Remove, clean thoroughly and carefully inspect each battery cable end -- and cables have two ends -- check both of them. Tighten securely.

 

[floatmiboat]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

Thanks for the ideas, I'm going to borrow a charger and start there. Maybe the battery isn't getting charged or is toast, it's about 5 years old. I have a multi meter, do I test it on the volts setting that I would use for alternating current?

 

[moi]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

Batteries are D.C., direct current, and measured in volts. If it's a digital multimeter you have, a fully charged standard wet battery would have an open circuit voltage reading of just about 12.65 volts dc.

 

[floatmiboat]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

I've charged the battery and if I turn the key on and touch the red lead of my digital multimeter to the pos battery termiinal and the black to the pos solenoid terminal I read nothing. If I touch the red lead to pos battery terminal and the black to the starter side of the solenoid I read 12.5, I think this means my solenoid is defective? I had thought that if the solenoid clicked when I turned the key it was working anyways, if someone could affirm that the solenoid is the problem I would be grateful.

 

[CharlieB]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

Keep your meter black lead on the battery Neg terminal.

Pull the lanyard so the motor does not start.
At each test, have a helper crank the motor just long enough for you to read the meter. Write down the #'s so you can see where they change.
1 Test at battery Pos terminal
2 test at battery cable terminal of starter solenoid
3 test at starter terminal of solenoid
4 test at starter

Move the meter black lead to the motor block and repeat all the above tests.

If you see a drop at any point then you have proved a poor connection between that point and the last point tested.

 

[ve3rpm]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

I'll interject a little... Anything after 3 years on a battery is gravy. Everyone has a backyard mechanic, or relative in the neighbourhood who has a battery load tester. Chase him down.
Next, you can bridge the solenoid to see if that is the issue. And last, with 2 leads from your meter on voltage it's looking for voltage differences. Place the black on neg. and red on all of the positives looking for voltage differences. If your voltage seems to be dropping downstream, then you can shift over to continuity and start looking for bad connections, corroded wires etc. Hope this helps.

 

[floatmiboat]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

When you say bridge the solenoid, do you mean running a piece of wire from the battery side terminal to the starter side terminal?

 

[ve3rpm]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

yup! You'll get some sparks. Personally I'd use one half of some jumper cables... Your solenoid is basically a relay... small amount of current through the ignition wire to flip a much larger switch. l'd try bridging from the battery side of the solenoid to the ignition wire pin as well. If it works like that, you may have issues with the wiring from your key to the solenoid...

 

[floatmiboat]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

CharlieB
Thanks for the help. I found the following readings, Battery-12.48, battery cable side of solenoid- 12.44, starter side of solenoid- 12.43 and the starter terminal was 12.40 all of these numbers were the same when I repeated the test with the black lead on the engine block. I'm not sure how to interpret the numbers though?

 

[ve3rpm]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

Probably not enough drop to be causing your problem though... Gotta keep looking I fear. Any chance you can flip another battery in for testing purposes?

 

[ve3rpm]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

Perhaps I'm missing something here. If you have 12 Volts on the starter terminal and the key isn't in the start position, I'd say the solenoid is fused. Seems to me that at unless you are starting the motor there should be 0 Volts there. If I'm right about this, then the solenoid has been allowing current to flow through to the starter which would be a constant drain on the battery. At this point, flip your meter to continuity and check between the Battery side of the solenoid and the starter side of the solenoid. If your meter shows continuity pull the ignition wire off and check again. If there is still continuity then the solenoid is pooched. if not, you have an issue between the key and the ignition pin on the solenoid. Pretty sure I've worked this out. Willing to have someone else weigh in.

 

[floatmiboat]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

I had the safety lanyard in the off position and my son briefly turning the key when I took the readings. Am I right to think that if I have no significant drop in voltage then it could be my 4 month old starter causing me problems?

 

[ve3rpm]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

If you bridge both large wires of the solenoid and the starter spins, then no.

 

[ve3rpm]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

My boat doesn't have a safety lanyard, so I find it confusing. You want everything in this circuit to run for testing purposes. I was led to believe that the lanyard kills power to the motor. Can't have that when you want the thing to go, but then I've never run into one, although I am thinking of installing one before next season. If you run one side of a jumper cable from the positive of the battery to the starter and it spins... it's good.

 

[floatmiboat]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

Well, I tried bypassing the solenoid and nothing happened when I touched the wire to the starter terminal. So I guess my starter has something wrong with it unless my battery is toast. The battery tests at 12.48 with my meter but, I don't have access to a load tester at this point.

 

[Fed]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

I found the following readings, Battery-12.48, battery cable side of solenoid- 12.44, starter side of solenoid- 12.43 and the starter terminal was 12.40 all of these numbers were the same when I repeated the test with the black lead on the engine block. I'm not sure how to interpret the numbers though?

It can only be a bad starter.

 

[ve3rpm]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

Pull the battery from your car...

 

[floatmiboat]

Re: mercury 25 hp electric start electric start not working

It looks like the bendix gear has been hitting the bottom of the fly wheel, It seems to be spinning up too high, there are some scuff marks on it from the flywheel that my last starter doesn't seem to have. The thing is I don't remember there being any room for adjustment when I installed it. I'm guessing that if the starter is damaged then maybe this was the cause, seeing as I've only fired it up 2 or 3 dozen times since installing it. Maybe I'll just use the pull start for now.