1990 Ski Nautique Will not turn over

Need help
I installed a new battery, and replaced the terminal rings on both the negative and positive terminals. I made sure that everything is tight, and followed the negative wire to make sure it made a good tight connection on the left side of the block (facing engine looking towards rear of boat from bow) removed the bolt, sanded the block and the connection and re-tightened to block. I turned the key and all I got was a slow turning motor. I turned it off and rechecked all of my connections. Battery has 12.7 Volts. I tried the key again, and this time nothing. I tried again, and I got a hard click from the started area.

   I have a limited ability with electrical. I watched a friend find issues with his Nautique using a circuit tester. Is there a post i can review or can anyone help me learn how to test the wiring to find out what the problem might be. I only have a circuit tester at the moment but I can get a volt meter if need be

1000 cca

flyweed wrote: New Battery.........you said 12.7 volts.....that should be plenty..but a new fully charged battery should be well over 13 volts.   How many CCA is it?

It doesn't stay well over 13 volts for a whole long time though

Here's a pretty easy to follow wiring diagram courtesy of TRB that works for your 90 model year engine.

It sounds like you have the old style starter, same as this diagram shows

From your description I'd pull the starter and bench test it with a set of jumper cables or take it to be tested at most any car parts outfit.

Positive battery terminal to the lug on the starter and negative battery terminal to a good ground on the starter like the shiny unpainted nose piece.

When you do this the starter should spin up normally and kick the pinion gear outwards so holding the starter down on the bench is a good idea   

If it doesn't spin right up, it probably time for a rebuild or a new starter or a homegrown fluff and buff of the starter but since you say you're not too good with electrical, I'd go with one of the first 2 options.

Being a 90 you almost certainly have a normal automotive rotation engine and will need a CW rotating starter if buying another starter

Thank you guys. I pulled the starter and I have it set-up on my tool bench to test it. I will keep you guys posted on the end game.

You need a CW rotating starter. Same as automotive rotation.

So a car starter would work but...........it doesn't have the same spark protection as a marine starter for a 351w.

You can verify that from the link a few posts back.

These days, I would get an ARCO 70200 starter (or something that cross references to it) for your engine. It's a newer PMGR starter (permanent magnet gear reduction)

It's smaller, lighter more powerful, draws less current and is just plain spiffier looking

It takes a small easy to accomplish wiring change and the wiring diagram shown below shows the wiring for that starter.

It's another easy to follow diagram from that same guy TRB that looks a lot like the previous diagram except in the area of the wiring for the solenoid and the PMGR starter



In the legend, note 1 should say "PMGR starter" not "non solenoid type starter"