Towed in today. Think it’s electrics☹️

Hi all, looking for some help with an electrical issue please. First day on the lake ended in embarrassment.

Battery wasn’t showing fully charged from the charger but even on the driveway there was a sign of something not quite right.

It cranks quite slowly even when fully charged but fires up fine. Occasionally (today being a fine example) the solenoid will click, it won’t crank and the voltmeter goes from 12/13V to zero. The only way to reset this condition is to disconnect the battery live and then it will get 12v again. Usually that’s enough but today it kept going to zero (shorting?) and no number of “resets” would make it fire.

I don’t think it’s the battery as it’s pretty big and shows 12/13v.

Any ideas?

Or any suggestions for fault finding before I pull my pants down and take it to the marina mechanic?
Thanks!
Calum

Sounds similar to our issue in the tique last year. As Tim said, verify good battery first. Many times a weak battery caused the symptoms you are mentioning. We had similar issues and had a bad ground. Our batt cables were corroded and shot!

Goldcup101 wrote: What's with the reset issue out of interest? Why does the battery need disconnecting and reconnecting with this bad connection problem?

I feel just disconnecting the battery terminals "cleaned up" the connection enough for you to get some volts/amps through. Wiggling the terminals also "cleaned up" the cable to the terminal connection.

The system does not Isolate with bad voltage. The click was the start relay. Then the poor battery connection arced causing further resistance cutting the power. Then you disconnecting and reconnecting the battery renewed the connection.

Sand paper! NO!! You are doing more harm than good since small grains of non conductive abrasive get embedded into the terminals and posts. Get a battery post and terminal cleaner that's designed for the job and then make sure your terminals are tight.

Thanks Pete; lesson learned. Terminal cleaner ordered!!
Cheers, Calum

Goldcup101 wrote:

Nice!

Goldcup101 wrote: Further to last, have decided to replace the battery cables; they weren't looking in great shape and I don't want a repeat performance of last week! Planning on 1AWG gauge marine cable. If anyone knows that 0 will fit (or recommended) then please say but I'm worried it will be too thick. If someone has done this job, I'd be grateful to know the lengths I need please as I'd rather order them terminated and then pull the new ones in as the old ones come out. The boat is a 97 TSC1 Ski. (HO Carb Engine if that matters) Many thanks once again!