Starter gets hung up

CCA of the battery is a little low and the cables are most likely corroided.

Greg,
500 is on the low side. Is that what the dealer had in stock? Hopefully they were smart enough and didn't put a deep cycle in the boat!! When they put the new cables in, did they go bigger or use the same gauge? Check your voltage at the starter while cranking.

We used to save the 425's and 500's for the pontoon boats. Your about 200 shy.
and I concur with Pete, no deep cycle.

Im not sure of the gauge but I will check into it. I hate electrical on boats, so difficult!!

Greg,
Chris did a "typo" above. He meant to say the cable should be 2/0 and not 0/2 as typed.

it might be label "OO" too.

yea the battery

it should read over 13 volts at the posts, if not its junk

Tag962 wrote: Everything looks fine but I believe I have a short. When I turn the key to the on position I am showing a reading of 10 volts. I guess I have a draw somewhere so that is taking away from the cranking power. Any suggestions on where to start?

First, check your voltage at the battery and not at the gauge. If your battery shows higher then this may be a classic case of voltage drop to the dash. Clean all connections from the engine to and including under the dash. A wiring upgrade to the dash may even be needed.

For a parasitic load, you put the VOM in series between one of the battery cables and the battery terminal. Don't crank the engine. Start with the meter set to 20 (or 10 on some) amps. Check what amps it shows and you may be able to set the meter to the MA scale. It will be more accurate. If there's something drawing power, it will show up on the meter. Pull fuses or turn off breakers one at a time and when the meter goes to zero, that's the circuit that's drawing power.

BTW, with you turning the key to the on position, you are sending power out to the ignition system.

Do you feel somethings draining the battery over time?

You need to answer these questions so we can help:
What about the cable size, the battery size (already known to be too small) and is it a start or deep cycle?

I concur,
and the low dash voltage is significant, its load is not trivial, its powering the coil, the alternator, the choke element, blower. 2 volts low turns into three when powering the solenoid. Then add the starter current load on the battery and the dash will drop further, then there is not enough holding power on the contactor, it chatters, arcs and melts closed.

Tag962 wrote: You guys are great, I really appreciate all the ideas. I will check into all of this when I get home. I did check the cable and it is 2 gauge, so I should remove that & use 2/0?

Highly recommended. Then take the 2's back to the dealer. You can then explain to them where they can put them!!

BTW, the 2/0 has about 50% more current carrying capacity over the #2.

yes neg post on battery to ground on block

I got the lugs but I have to put them on when I cut to length.

Screw on style battery terminal:


Cheap style:

Greg,
Did you get a new larger CCA battery. Did you ever check to see if the marina put a deep cycle in it? One last thing, I recommend you do put a new starter relay (solenoid) in since the contacts inside are already burnt/welded.

Sounds like you did a pro job on the cables! You could teach the marina something!

it should measure over 13v at the battery