need some more help electrical

I hate to over stay asking for Greg's help, so I am reaching out to the entire CCF community. Today I re-ran the ground wire from the battery to block. I am anal retentive so I used sticky heat shrink and brushed the block mount with a steel brush. I used dielectric grease and bolted it in place. Took the solenoid off and brushed the mounting plate and dabbed just a bid of the dielectric grease to the back plate and bolted the solenoid back on.

In the drive way it starts and run great with the garden hose attached. On the lake it runs awesome for about 10 minutes and dies. It would not turn over, so I short the solenoid with a pair of pliers and it started back up..got me to the boat launch so I was able to get it trailered fine. I noticed a couple of things.

1. The volt meter on the dash only show about 8 - 10 volts when on. When the engine dies it reads almost nothing.

2. When I use the jumper cables to go from battery ground to the solenoid (which starts every time) the volt meter shows between 12 and 13 volts which sounds about right.

Solenoid is new.
Balast resistor is new.
Motor runs incredibly smooth until it dies. But it does seem to start backup easily enough with the pliers shorting the solenoid.

Any suggestions on what else I should look for?

Thanks

Have you seen this diagram:

Found out that new solenoid had a crack in it. Went up and got another one. Wired it in and she started right up...lets see how it does on the lake. On my way!!!

on the side where the wire from the solenoid to the starter connects. But..bad news..it still croaks after a few minutes. Some times it turns over and sometimes it doesn't. I may just rewire the damn thing...driving me nuts.

Saw a thread earlier that points to possible ground issues under the dash. That might make sense why the volt meter may be showing the incorrect voltage. I think I will run a ground wire from the wire block under the dash straight to the block. This may be what is causing the boat to just die. Some times it will start right back up and other times I have to use the pliers method on the solenoid.   

It is true..I have seen the graphics lying on the floor in his basement. I will continue to reach out to him. I just don't want to be the creepy house guest that wont leave.

No sweat Philip; the next week or so is a great time to bug me.

The gound isn't getting back to the dash. Pull that harness plug again and take some fine sand paper to it. See if the sockets are green.

Sorry about the solenoid...they'll take it back. I'm busy tomorrow. Otherwise, let's try to get it over here early.

Thanks Jeff, we'll see.