Starter or Battery?

[Distraction]

Recently I tried starting my Johnson 115 ob, and the starter just buzzed with an electric sound. I hooked up the battery with jumper cables to my truck and jump started it. At first it did the same thing, then it turned over. The second it turned over, I disconnected the jumper cables and tried again. Then I was able to start it with just the boat batteries.<br /><br />I motored out to my spot, went diving, and when I got back in the boat it turned over fine.<br /><br />This weekend, I tried to go fishing. Dunked the boat at the ramp. Engine turned over fine, but didn't start right away. Next time I turn the key, I get that same buzzing.<br /><br />Try to put the motor back up using the buttons and there is a buzzing coming from those solenoids (or whatever) as well. And when trying to put the motor up, the RPM meter shot up.<br /><br />Wierd.<br /><br />Any ideas? Is it the starter, my battery, or is there a wiring problem somewhere? The wierd thing is that it also ran fine last weekend on the way back from diving.<br /><br />I'm going to try charging the batteries good, but I take the boat on vacation here in a little bit and want to make sure that it's in good shape.<br /><br />Thanks!

 

[Kenny Bush]

Re: Starter or Battery?

Matt, sounds like batteries......

 

[petryshyn]

Re: Starter or Battery?

I think you best clean and tighten all your battery clamps and connections. Since it didn't boost normally the first try, there could be more here than low batteries....what setup do you have for batteries? 1 or 2, switch, etc...

 

[John Reynolds]

Re: Starter or Battery?

Looks like the battery allright. Harbor Freight (and similar stores) sell a battery tester that works pretty good; it clamps onto the battery terminals, and puts a load on it (by using a heater coil) and you read the condition off of a meter.

 

[Boatist]

Re: Starter or Battery?

Matt<br />Make sure all your battery cables are clean and tight. Hook voltmeter to battery post while someone trys to crank. Battery voltage should not drop below 10 volts. If it starts watch voltage and see if charging. Should rise to at least 13.8 volts.<br /><br />If battery voltage 12.6 volts and just buzzes then move your meter to starter. Ground on block and + wire to starter battery wire. Watch while trying to start, if voltage drops here then you have a bad or loose or corroded cable. Can be hot wire or ground wire.

 

[KenOhki]

Re: Starter or Battery?

friend of mine had a problem he decribed similure to yours. He removed and cleaned his electric starter. it was all gummed up inside. May or may not be your problem. Worth looking into if all else fails.

 

[Distraction]

Re: Starter or Battery?

Thanks, all, for the help. Here is what I did:<br /><br />Charged the batteries.<br /><br />Tested them with one of those eyedroppers with the floaty-things. Most of the cells had all 4 things float...a few had only 3 float.<br /><br />Took the batteries to Batteries Plus. They ran them through a series of tests, including a load test. Both batteries checked out 'Good'.<br /><br />Took the batteries home and hooked them up to the engine directly, bypassing the switch (1,2,both or none). Both batteries turned the engine over no problem.<br /><br />Took all the wiring apart and cleaned the connections...the switch had more fouling than any other point, but I cleaned them all. The engine connections all looked pristine.<br /><br />Hooked everything back together and the engine fired on 1, 2, and both.<br /><br />So it looks like it was contacts...probably in the switch.<br /><br />Thank all of you for your recommendations...you guys gave me the inspiration to tackle this myself instead of wimping out and paying through the nose to have someone else do it. <br /><br />One more question.<br /><br />At Batteries Plus, I bought a trickle charger. The battery charger I had was one I got from my grandfather...needle on the front jumped up to 6 or 7 when first put on the battery and it dropped to 2. I assume those are amps, but am not sure. The new charger does 1.25 amps, and senses when the battery is full and goes into 'maintenance' mode.<br /><br />So here's my question: how do I wire the ring connectors for the battery charger to my current battery/switch setup?<br /><br />Basically, I have two batteries. Negative is wired to Negative, and one of the Negatives is also attached to the black wire going to the engine. The switch has three posts...the Feed post (red wire from engine), then post 1 and post 2, which each have red wires going to Positive for battery 1 and 2 respectively.<br /><br />My battery charger only has one set of leads coming from it (red and black, obviously).<br /><br />Is there a way to set the switch to 'Both' and charge both batteries at the same time?<br /><br />What I did was put the red connector on the Feed post of the switch, where the red wire from the engine is. Then I put the black wire on one of the battery's Negative post. Does that sound like that will do it?<br /><br />Sheesh...I should have taken an engineering class in college just to wire up my boat correctly. <br /><br />Thanks again!

 

[petryshyn]

Re: Starter or Battery?

Hook it up as shown (ignore the troller labels) This will allow you to charge B1, B2 or both...<br /><br />

 

[Link]

Re: Starter or Battery?

Matt I'm glad things worked out. This is a great forum. Schematic: Great schematic I emailed this page to give it to a friend! 20 years ago I bought at the time a 20 year old BellBoy with about the sames problems. A 80hp Johnson that I learned to jump start and warm up before heading to the boat launch, so it would start. But took it as a fact of life that when returning from fishing I would have to pull start it! (I had done all the above) One day during lunch I told the story and this guy told me he had the same problem. All connections looked great! He told me to find the center of the battery cables and cut off a little of the plastic cover and look at the cables and sure enough I did and they were green! <br />After twenty years plus af boating in salt air even though the previous owner had cleaned connections and they looked great the cables had continued to Corrode under the rubber. So I put new cables in and never had to jump or pull start it again. I live in the puget sound area where some boats never see fresh water fishing. Just something else to look for guys.<br />Happy Boating<br />Link