No Start, and No water Strainer

Okay, so 10 days ago I purchased my 1999 Sport Nautique. When I bought it, it ran fine, maybe even great. It's my second boat, first inboard.


Today, I was performing maintenance and I noticed there is no raw water strainer. Where I would have expected the strainer to be there is a plastic 90* elbow that connects two sections of the water intake tube.

Was the strainer an option? The owners manual makes it sound like it was standard equipment on all.   Do I need to source one?

My second Newb question of the day: It won't start now.   I started it once this morning, replaced the raw water pump, and now the starter will not even spin.
I have:

• Put the battery on a charger for 3 hours, voltage is at 13.
• Confirmed the bilge pump works.
• confirmed the blower works
• jumped the starter solenoid posts with a screwdriver

There is an audible click, one single click from the rear of the engine when I turn the key to the start position. After the audible click the entire boat loses power - no blower no bilge, no lights on the dash.

I tried pushing in on the red 50amp breaker - it is not tripped.

If I let the boat sit for a few minutes and try it again it will click, then the boat goes dead.

If I let it sit for a few minutes and try the bilge pump and blower they work!

One time, only one time, the starter engaged and bumped the engine over. I released the key before it started. It only did that once.

As a new guy, I sure would appreciate some guidance. I'm very familiar with the mechanical and electrical aspects of cars and trucks, so I'm not intimidated by this, just annoyed and needing somebody to point me in the right direction. I've got a garage full of tools and my plan for tomorrow is to take a multimeter out there and chase those electrons from the battery to the starter and see if I can figure out where the little bastards are getting hung up.

8122pbrainard wrote: A voltage check on a battery is pretty meaningless since it's possible you are only reading a surface charge. Have the battery load tested if you suspect it's bad. Hopefully it's not a deep cycle and is a starting battery. How are the battery cables and the terminals? Do you use a battery post/terminal cleaner on them?

Battery is clean, clean, clean. No corrosion anywhere.

I can't wrap my head around the blower working great, me trying to start the engine and having a failure, and subsequently the blower not working.

For a strainer you could go with this one,Pete will know what screen size to use or you could use this one

Gary S wrote: For a strainer you could go with this one,Pete will know what screen size to use or you could use this one

I suggest the 20 mesh (the coarsest) since all that's needed is to remove the larger debris that gets sucked in.

Thank you all.

It was, indeed, a weak electrical connection.

I confirmed that the battery is a starting battery, and while manipulatinng it in the hull I noticed sparking in the battery terminal clamp. Pretty much what you all were saying and exactly what Snobsessed called out.   I kind of wish I had done some more checking yesterday before coming in here and screaming that the sky was falling. :)

I got the engine oil changed and am servicing the transmission this afternoon.

Thanks for the link to the water strainer and the suggestion for "20" coarse filter screen. I'll be adding one of those next weekend. I'm thinking I should pull the hose off the tranny cooler and see what junk is in there. The new RWP pulls water just fine at idle and on throttle, but without a strainer I can only guess what's in the cooler fins.