89 2755 electrical issue mayday mayday mayday-gctid394527

[Guest]

I pulled into a hangout today and just as I got to my spot and put her in neutral the engine died I thought that was odd but wasn't to concerned at that point. When setting the anchor the winch sounded a little weak so I thought about the battery being discharged so I turned the ignition switch on and sure enough they appeared to be deader then a door nail. I started my gen in hopes of the on board charger would charge the battery's enough to start the engine and get me home but to no avail so after being towed to the docks and loading the boat on the trailer and getting back home I'm at the point where I need your input please. All of the 12 volt circuits are dead I was thinking there is a main ignition breaker in the engine compartment but all I can find is a auto reset and I don't even have 12 volts to that. When I turn on the key switch theres no movement at the gages and no dash lights, the 12 volt overhead lights don't work. I do know both of battery's are 1 year old and all the connections on them are clean and tight. Whats your thoughts on other possibility's or places I should start checking

Thanks Doug

[jmcannonball]

Since you made it to your 'hangout' it is evident that you were able to start the boat when you first launched. So, you may have already done some of this, but:

1. Check fluid level in battery

2. Check battery cable connections at battery, engine, and battery switch.

3. Check output of alternator.

Other questions:

If you have house batteries, do they charge OK with the engine running?

Since your generator started, could you have "jumpered" the genny and/or house battery to the engine starting battery?

Is the boat equipped with a charger/inverter that can keep the batteries floating while plugged into AC?

Let us know what you find.

[Guest]

jmcannonball wrote:
Since you made it to your 'hangout' it is evident that you were able to start the boat when you first launched. So, you may have already done some of this, but:

1. Check fluid level in battery

2. Check battery cable connections at battery, engine, and battery switch.

3. Check output of alternator.

Other questions:

If you have house batteries, do they charge OK with the engine running?

Since your generator started, could you have "jumpered" the genny and/or house battery to the engine starting battery?

Is the boat equipped with a charger/inverter that can keep the batteries floating while plugged into AC?

Let us know what you find.

Thanks fo the reply the jen is a stand alone it has a pull starter so not tied into boat wireing other then when I plug it into the shore power yes batterys are full and terminals are clean and good.The batterys used to charge good from the alt not sure about now have to get it running first. I will check alt out put when i get engine running. yes its set up with dual battery charger that runs when shore power is plugged in and its running now according to the indicator light the batterys are discharged. so gonna get a charge on them and go from there

[Guest]

I hd a similar situation last year. Ran the boat all day, no problem. Dropped the anchor to do some crabbing. Tewo hours later, tried to start the boat and everything went dead. Turns out the boat was boucing around a little in the water, some bilge water hit the starter (or thereabouts), when I tried to start the engine the main in-line fuse blew. That meant neither battery could connect to the electrical systems to fire up the boat. I now keep half a dozen in line fuses on the boat.

Good luck!

Rob

[Guest]

As mentioned in first post I was looking for a resettable breaker for the ing system and only found a square nonserviceable fuse well it turns out that fuse is the resettable breaker it has a very very small black button on the side that pops out when tripped to reset just push button back in (wish I knew that before I went through the stress of being stranded and asking for a tow)now as far as what caused that problem is the alt voltage regulator is bad or going bad and according to the voltage gage it was bouncing and pegging the needle intermediately. I just happen to have a new alternator. I guess the new inverter and all the extra 12volt accessories were just to much for the old girl. Thank you guys for your input!

[2850Bounty]

I agree, you'll want to find out why this breaker tripped.

Loose connections can lower voltage.

Lower voltage, being asked to perform the same task, increases the amperage.

Amperage is what trips breakers.

I'd begin by looking at every connection;

Look at the hull harness/engine harness interface (a large multi-pin plug affair), harness system negative common connection (rear of engine usually), all Pos connections, and so on.

You may even want to look at your MBSS (main battery selector switch).

Look at where the MBSS "common" cable connects to the starter motor.

Your alternator charge lead will eventually terminate here also.

.

[Iproff]

Is this the original Redi 8 charger that came with the boat?

These charger will boil a battery and destroy them if left on all the time.

I would remove the batteries from the boat and bench charge them and then load test them. Once they are either confirmed good or bad I would but the charged or new batteries back in the boat. If this is the original engine and drive you have a Ford 351 and a Cobra drive, I had the same set-up, there are two in-line fuses inside the harness. You need to look for a black connection that looks like squeeze bulb that is used on an out board motor fuel tank. There will be a wire holding the connection together, pull the wire off of the connection and pull the connection apart. There will be a fuse inside there, I always kept spares on the boat just in case they every blew.

Ken