Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

[River's Revenge]

I know about electrical and am very comfortable with it but let me poll the minds with this one.
The engine setup is a 140 4cly inline with a mc1 outdrive. 16cvxss glastron carlson 1978.

I just had the lower unit pulled and the engine out. fixed an exhaust port leak and then put it all back in. Charged the battery all night and put it in. Did a once over on all the wires and put the ears on her. Just to check it a little more i turned on the engine compartment blower motor. works. turned on the bilge pump. works. so put the ears on it and added water. turned the key and a weird clickity click happens. Also had a fluke meter on the battery 14 plus vdc when the key is turned.
This is strange cause it always fired up before the engine removal and now this. hmmmm.

like i said i know the electrical so i hooked the leads up to my truck battery to make sure it's not the battery.. same clickity, so i check the wires again. i even rapped on the starter and the sol. Still no Joy.. hmmmm

So i manually made sure the front pulley turned to make sure it wasn't frozen to the flywheel. By turning it over by hand. nope she turned with some force but nothing out of the norm. hmmmm. If it was frozen to the flywheel i think it would have just gone click. from no movement.

so I check the wires again, hmmm. It's in nuetral, nothin. damn.

So i didn't have much time to go from there because i had to go to work. (That work thing gets in the way some times).

Here's my question. After looking at the schematic i see that the red push button circuit breaker is in the charging loop. I did not push this yet and was wondering if this breaker is tripped will it prevent it from turning over?

Also because the engine was out and alignment went together smoothly you'd think it wouldn't be an issue. but it could, right? What else should I check. I don't see a voltage regulator and know that if it had one it could be frozen points but like i said i don't think there is one installed.

also i didn't have that much time to really have a good look and go line by line through it but there could be a ground wire issue also, maybe maybe not.

What do the master minds think? any input??? Red circuit breaker??? Stuck starter? I'm scratchin my head.

 

[River's Revenge]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Oh and trim works

 

[Don S]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Go thru the link below, check things out and let us know what your problem was.
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=167035

 

[Bondo]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Also had a fluke meter on the battery 14 plus vdc when the key is turned.

Ayuh,... It appears to Me,.. You're workin' the Problem,.. Backwards....

The question is,... What's the voltage at the Starter, when you hear the Click,..??

 

[proshadetree]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Jump solenoid from activation to hot on batt. If you hear clic check cables and then starter

 

[River's Revenge]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

I haven't been able to check this yet, but i like using the old "kiss" method. Keep it simple stupid.. If it was working fine before it should be simple. Odds are a short happened and the breaker tripped. So I'm putting my money on the red circuit breaker. You'd think if the breaker did pop, you just wouldn't get anything, hmmm. I do like that link tho Don, Thanks. I think i'll print that and keep in close.
I'll let ya know the outcome.

This forum rules!!!

 

[JustJason]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Also had a fluke meter on the battery 14 plus vdc

Impossible unless the engine is running and the alternator has reached it's "turn on" rpm.

Google "voltage drop test" then you'll know how to use your Fluke meter.

 

[River's Revenge]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Impossible unless the engine is running and the alternator has reached it's "turn on" rpm.

Google "voltage drop test" then you'll know how to use your Fluke meter.

I always liked the word "Impossible" until I relizes it is "possible"
Remember Jason "No Bashing".

 

[Bondo]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

I always liked the word "Impossible" until I relizes it is "possible"

Ayuh,.... So how is it possible to get 14v plus out of a 12v battery, static, no load, no chargin',..??

I'd think 12, 1/2v,+ believe 14v plus is Impossible...

 

[Don S]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

It's also possible your Fluke meter is wrong. I have junked one because it gave stupid impossible reasons, and everyone elses meter in the shop showed the same things.
Don't go crazy with the "Nothing is impossible" cop out. Not everything is possible.

 

[JustJason]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Heya Dude... i'm not bashing by any means... just trying to help ya out, no matter how short worded my replies may be.

To quote again with your full quote.... (and I left out a small part of it before)

Also had a fluke meter on the battery 14 plus vdc when the key is turned.

Turning the key indidcates loading the battery. If you have a battery fresh off a high amp charge, you may see 14+ volts. But that's just a surface charge. If you turn the key to the point that the starter is drawing, you'll lose that surface charge in 5 seconds, and then you'll reveal the true battery voltage.


I have 2 fluke meters that I use. I use my 17 year old fluke 8 probably 90% of the time. When i'm working on EFI stuff, sensitive stuff, I use my 5 year old Fluke 88V. Both meters are the same to .01 of a volt. And both meters read the same to .01 of an ohm (yes, even with 17 year old meter leads on the old one). I also use a Fluke I410 to measure current, and use a Matco (same as Actron, sears, and a few others) battery load toaster to measure batteries and load up charging systems.

Point being... you won't see 14 volts on a loaded battery.... period. The only way you'll see that is if you have 2 batteries in series and 1 is half dead.

Just google "voltage drop test". If you can perform it, and I won't explain it all unless you have specific questions about it. (cuz it can be somewhat complicated) You will find your problem... That's what the test is for... isolating problems.

 

[River's Revenge]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

See, just by discussing this i can come up with a plausable solution. By having the 14 vdc there tells me that there was no voltage drop. Why? there's not that many players in the game. Battery, sol, starter, circuit breaker, key switch. lets see am i missing anything? oh yeah the nuetral switch (Doubt it) and plug harness, no kill switch. So with no drop tells me it never got to the starter or sol.

I'm still bettin on the circuit breaker. Oh and you're correct, I did just take it off a 10 amp charge. So No offense taken gentlemen, I'm new to the forum so don't bite my head off just yet.

Thanks for the input.

 

[River's Revenge]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Thanks for the Lesson Gentlemen, Went home and pressed the red button on the circuit breaker and the bugger fired right up. In my old age i've began to show signs of stupidity.

Once again thanks. I've got a great memory... it's just really short.

Can ya give me the skinny on Electron theory as to why the clickity?.. if the positive side is gone from the circuit. you'd think it would just do nothing. No click no nothin, Must be "Hole Flow Theory"

Thanks again for the link Don.
enjoy!

 

[JustJason]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

depending on how the boat is wired, you shouldn't have even gotten voltage to the keyswitch in the first place, let alone being able to turn it and juice the starter.

 

[River's Revenge]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Yep I agree Jason. Thanks for the help. Sometimes it's just better to crack open a beer and tinker.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Went home and pressed the red button on the circuit breaker and the bugger fired right up.

I'm not splitting hairs here, but you mentioned the KISS method of repairs. Can I ask...

When you saw the circuit breaker at your initial test firing, why didn't you press it then when the boat went clickity clickity click?...just to be sure?

Just wondering...

 

[180shabah]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Can ya give me the skinny on Electron theory as to why the clickity?.. if the positive side is gone from the circuit. you'd think it would just do nothing. No click no nothin, Must be "Hole Flow Theory"

Three decades is a long time, there are probably many "paths" that didn't exost in the original wire harness....

 

[Motormaniac801]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

"When someone says nothings impossible, tell them to dribble a football"...

River, I had the same problem with my 74 glastron the first time I brought it out to the water (made me kinda nervous). tried to turn it over and it started cranking. I let off the key when i thought it was going good, needless to say it wasnt. so when i went to start it again, "clickity click". So I hit the breaker and she fired right up.

But like you said. you would think if the breaker tripped it would cut all power. Makes me wonder the if there are any other flaws in the wiring or if there might be anything that is drawing unnecessary current while not in use....hmmmm

 

[River's Revenge]

Re: Turn the key and Clickity clickity click

Fireman, yeah I would have gotten to the circuit breaker sooner but my mind wanders most of the time. I forget stuff. Kinda like my 20 year wedding aniversary. Opps, didn't think of it till later.