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1986 Grady White starter problem - possibly an issue with a Guest battery switch?

Lab-Lover

New member
I'm new to this forum and would appreciate any input or suggestions.

I just purchased a 1986 Grady White with a 5.7 liter engine and Cobra sterndrive. The boat came to me with the positive cable of 500 CCA combined starter / deep cycle battery connected to the #1 terminal of a Guest battery switch and the positive cable of a 650 CCA deep cycle battery connected to the #2 terminal of the Guest battery switch with a feeder line running to the accessory 40 amp breaker. The negative cables from both batteries run to the engine block ground.

The Guest battery switch has the following four settings: 1, 2, OFF, BOTH

The previous owner said to always set the battery switch to BOTH for starting and leave it there while running. Does the BOTH setting combine the amperage of both batteries to the starter?

The starter worked great a few times but now will no longer turn the engine over, it tries to but only gets about a 1/4 revolution and stops, I assume, when the cylinder compression gets too great. After attempting to start the engine a couple of times and holding the key in the start position for 3 - 4 seconds each time the wires at the starter solenoid are a too hot to touch.

Does this mean that the starter is burned out and could it have been caused by leaving the battery switch in the BOTH setting?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
 
I'm new to this forum and would appreciate any input or suggestions.

I just purchased a 1986 Grady White with a 5.7 liter engine and Cobra sterndrive. The boat came to me with the positive cable of 500 CCA combined starter / deep cycle battery connected to the #1 terminal of a Guest battery switch and the positive cable of a 650 CCA deep cycle battery connected to the #2 terminal of the Guest battery switch with a feeder line running to the accessory 40 amp breaker. The negative cables from both batteries run to the engine block ground.

The Guest battery switch has the following four settings: 1, 2, OFF, BOTH

The previous owner said to always set the battery switch to BOTH for starting and leave it there while running. Does the BOTH setting combine the amperage of both batteries to the starter?

The starter worked great a few times but now will no longer turn the engine over, it tries to but only gets about a 1/4 revolution and stops, I assume, when the cylinder compression gets too great. After attempting to start the engine a couple of times and holding the key in the start position for 3 - 4 seconds each time the wires at the starter solenoid are a too hot to touch.

Does this mean that the starter is burned out and could it have been caused by leaving the battery switch in the BOTH setting?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Nope,... I'd sooner think the motor is hydro-locked, or the drive is locked up, or Whatever...

Holdin' the key On, like that I'm sure has shortened that starter's life considerably though...

Pull the spark plugs, 'n try it,...

If it don't turn over, pull the drive...
 
Another possibility is that you have a weak ground connection either at the battery or at the wires to the engine block. Use a set of jumper cables to bypass the Guest switch and establish a good ground on the block.
 
Ding, ding, ding, ding..... Bondo is the winner!!!! Chawk_man I cleaned the grounds and tried again but no change so I pulled the sparkplugs and cranked the engine. lo and behold I had water spraying out of at least 4 of the cylinders, maybe all 8. Cranked it until most of the water was gone, cleaned the plugs and put them back in, pumped the gas a couple of times and she fired right up!!!!! Ran it long enough to heat up and dry things out. The engine oil is still nice and clean so at least I know the rings have a good seal, tough way to find out though, I think I would rather run a compression test instead.

Now the question is, where did the water come from? When the problem ocurred I had just finished a 4 hour fishing trip of constant trolling and pulled into the slip nice and slow on calm water, with no following wave which might have forced water into the outdrive. The engine killed as I shifted from forward to reverse which I think is an issue with the shift interrupter which I intend to have worked on this winter. We poled the boat into the slip, tied off and tried to restart the engine but it wouldn't crank over so it must have immediately hydro-locked. Could the hot engine have sucked water up thru the exhaust manifold and into the cylinders? Or when I shifted into reverse and the engine died could it have forced water into the engine. Either way, is this a common occurance on these engines and outdrives and how can I stop this from happening again? Is the only way to fix it to pull the plugs and pump the water out when it happens?
 
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