Poor starting with what seems like flat battery
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Category: General Forums
Forum Name: The Outboard Clinic
Forum Description: Anything related to outboard maintenance here....
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=48219
Printed Date: 04 Nov 2026 at 1:02am
Topic: Poor starting with what seems like flat battery
Posted By: Daggy1
Subject: Poor starting with what seems like flat battery
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2009 at 7:42pm
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Hi
Seems like I have some sort of electrical issue on starting.
Motor is a 115Hp Yamaha, around 2003.
With the old battery, after sitting for a week it seemed to take a while for the current to start getting to the right places. Initially before leaving home the tilt/trim would click then after a few flicks of the switch it would work fine. Then when I turn the key to start the motor there would be silence, then after flicking the tilt switch a coiple of times then turning the key the motor turns over fine. When the motor starts turning over there is no sign of lack of grunt in the battery. On the guage it was reading 12.2V to 12.4V at rest. When motoring it is showing around 14.4V.
So thinking it is a battery problem, and when it was serviced he reckoned it was on it's last legs anyway, I relented and bought a new one. (Taking in-laws out for their first trip and didn't want to make an ass of myself with no go at the boat ramp). And well you guessed it, exactly the same problem. No juice to motor when first turning the key (tilt did work immediately after getting boat off trailer though so I thought all would be good). Anyway, a few flicks of the tilt switch then turn the key and it was all go again.
All other electrical stuff was turned off.
So, any ideas????
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Replies:
Posted By: Cigar
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2009 at 7:49pm
| Loose or dirty connection somewhere??? |
Posted By: Daggy1
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2009 at 8:08pm
Maybe. Obviously the battery connection is clean now but I havn't checked the rest. I'll do that next weekend (before going to ramp ).
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Posted By: andy2fish
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2009 at 8:10pm
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Yep agree there is likely to be a loose connection of some sort. Check all connection from battery to starter and any earth connections are not loose. It could even be a isolation switch fault just by pass it and see what happens. Best of luck |
Posted By: Daggy1
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2009 at 8:21pm
| Thanks Sanandy. Reminds me that someone told me that the isolation switch I have could be a bit dodgy. It is a standard Bucanner key type, down beside the battery. Could easily get wetter than it should. |
Posted By: andy2fish
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2009 at 8:49pm
| No worries its amazing what a bit of salt water can do on connections it does not take long |
Posted By: Daggy1
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2009 at 4:09pm
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Same problem this morning before going out so I cleaned the terminals on the terminal switch. They were a bit corroded but not too bad. I couldn't get inside the switch unfortunately (was sealed) so I don't know if that is the problem of not. Although I checked it with a multimeter and there seems to be good current going though it.
I traced the power leads into the motor. I could hear the relay? clicking when i used the tilt switch. Sometimes it would click once sometimes rapid clicking. The terminals all looked clean. Tried to turn the motor over and nothing.
Eventually the tilt switch started to work so i took boat to ramp to launch it. Luckily it was a quiet day.
No go with the motor and the tilt switch was tempermental. after a few goes the motor eventually got some power to it and it was away.
any more ideas?
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Posted By: andy2fish
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2009 at 4:35pm
| If you have access put the volt meter on starter when trying to start it to see if its getting full juice as sometimes the starters can get lazy if brushes wearing out. If that is the case then you at least know its the starter and if not its somewhere in the cable or switches. |
Posted By: Outboard Performance
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2009 at 7:45pm
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Rapid clicking of solenoid indictates a poor earth.
Let me know if you have a volt meter and if so I'll PM you a procedure to test votlage drop of your hole battery cable system including switch. Will take you about 3 minutes and you will need a 2nd person. It will show you if your switches, relays, battery cables need replacing.
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Posted By: tobez
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2009 at 7:28am
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have you tried another battery tim - its possible to get a bad battery of the shelf - run some jumper leads from the car to the boat and see ------------- Waikato North Harbourmaster...Got a Nav Safety question for the Waikato region?...call me 021705642 or download the app Marine Mate! |
Posted By: Mullins
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2009 at 9:18am
| Had a similar problem on my boat which turned out to be a voltage drop, caused by a corroded connection in the wiring loom. Not quite as pronounced a change as yours but it always seemed to be marginal, struggling at first then starting ok once it had turned over a couple of times. |
Posted By: Daggy1
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2009 at 3:23pm
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Whats the "wiring loom"???
Seems like once the power gets to the motor or tilt switch then there is heaps of juice.
When out on the water for a couple of hours it starts fine. Seems like overnight a gremlin plays around with something to stop things working the next day.
Have tried Outboard Clinics testing, awaiting diagnosis.
Cheers
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Posted By: Saltiga
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2009 at 3:28pm
| New Battery me thinks when your bats are low we get that clicking sound, i would get both batterys tested |
Posted By: Cigar
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2009 at 8:43pm
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Daggy1 wrote:Posted By: tobez
Date Posted: 20 Dec 2009 at 9:02pm
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the loom is a cable that runs from the motor to the remote and gauges, there may be a joiner that can get corrosion but its likely that yours is one piece tim. ------------- Waikato North Harbourmaster...Got a Nav Safety question for the Waikato region?...call me 021705642 or download the app Marine Mate! |
Posted By: Unclejake
Date Posted: 21 Dec 2009 at 7:42pm
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Daggy - I have had exactly the same problem with a mid nintees Yamaha.
It was a breakdown of the main earth cable from the powerhead to the battery (our positive cable was fine). Salt water had got into the end of the cable and had corroded the fine wires in that big cable creating resistance. After a few attempts at starting the cable generated internal heat (due to the resistance) and the motor would start once the cable got warm.
An easy test is to suppliment the earth cable and then the positive cable with a jumper lead (make certain you know where to put it) or better still an ohms resistance test of each cable.
I simply cut of a few inches of the earth cable and the problem was solved for a few months but I kept having to shorten the cable as the problem returned.
Eventually I made a new earth cable and we have never had an issue since.
I am not saying this is what is wrong with your boat but it is an easy thing to eliminate. The offending Yamaha earth cable was a fine multi-strand wire and had gone black and brittle underneath the insulation.
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Posted By: Unclejake
Date Posted: 21 Dec 2009 at 7:50pm
For reference we replaced our Yamaha loom (not the earth cable mentioned above) with a factory new loom for about $375. It took me about an hour to fit.
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Posted By: Tagit
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2009 at 8:57am
| As mentioned above, check all the crimps terminals at the end of the earth and +ve cables. Give teh wire a bit of a twist and pull where it enters the connector. They can corrode and not be at all obvious until you suddenly find that they pull out of the connector and drop corrosion gunk all over the floor. The other most likely culprit is the battery isolation switch. They are also a common problem point. Try putting both cables on the same terminal of the switch to take the switch out of the circuit and try starting. If that sorts it, get a new switch and wire it back as it was originally. |
Posted By: Busted!
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2009 at 9:14am
| If it is the wiring might pay to go over the lot of it, other wise you might find you are continuously chasing wiring faults... |
Posted By: Daggy1
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2010 at 9:08pm
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Sanandy was right. as was Tobez when he did the service - I bypassed the battery switch and it was all go. So got myself a new switch to install over the weekend. Thanks for your ideas and help.
Tim
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