2004 9.9 Starter button

I have a 2004 9.9 with power trim/tilt and electric start (BABJ 1302797) experiencing a starting issue with the electric start.

Intermittently when I push the electric start button it clicks and will not turn over. When this occurs it disables power to the trim/tilt also. The motor will still pull start fine.

The batteries are new/charged and cable connections are clean. Two battery system that runs the main motor, downriggers, electronics etc. and all work normal.

After a few minutes (5-10) the problem seems to reset itself so that the electric tilt works normal. If I only use the electric tilt and pull start this never happens.

It seems to me like there is an auto resetting breaker that gets tripped since there is a click and then after a few minutes sitting the tilt works fine. I've gone through the parts diagram and can't seem to identify a resetting breaker to look at.

This happens about half the time I use the electric start. It works normal and starts the motor the other times. Knocking out the tilt is a big problem since the motor is stuck down when I need to move on the main.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

There is no automatic reset breaker. The click you hear is either the relay or the solenoid....or both.

This sounds like a bad connection. The problem is where?
I would start back at the batteries because you don't want them connected anyway while you methodically take apart and thoroughly clean the connectors.

Do you have an isolater or 1-2-BOTH switch? Those connections need cleaning periodically.

Take the big wires at the starter off and shine all that up.

A biggie is to find the end of the negative cable that grounds the engine and take it off and shine all contact points.

I'll wager that your problem will disappear with a thorough cleaning and tightening of those contacts.

Good luck.

Thank you very much for the reply. The boat does have a 1-2-both switch. I just inspected and cleaned it and all battery connections this winter. I will take a look at the engine side. In the past i have had corrosion creep up inside battery cables that otherwise looked to be in good condition. The cable from the kicker to the batteries is 15 years old so it may be a good idea to just replace it.

Last night I tried to get it to repeat the problem on the trailer so I could diagnose it but of course everything worked perfectly.

Thanks again.

Cranking amps when starting a motor and tilt and trim motor are completely different as far as demand goes. I would first test your battery, then work back to the switch, it could be the connections inside the switch have corrosion. New switches are pretty cheap and plug and play to rule it out. But I would first start at the battery and make sure its performing to meet the demand on even a 9.9.

I agree about the cranking amp demand difference. That is why I'm confused that after pressing the starting button the tilt completly doesn't work (I'd expect it to work slowly if the battery was low) and then comes back to life after a short rest. Also the battery is new and starts the main 150 HP engine with no problem even when the 9.9 is unresponsive.

Well, you could be 100% right about that old cable. There is a way to "see inside" the insulation on a cable like that. It's called "volt drop testing". If you have a decent digital multimeter and the knowledge of doing the test, you have all you need. It's one of the easiest and most informative processes for finding bad wiring and poor connections.

The idea is that in a perfect electrical circuit all the volts should only be consumed or "dropped" at the designated load. But, since nothing is perfect, a small amount of the available voltage will be dropped across each wire and every connection in the circuit including ground connections. This is normal as long as the total dropped in the circuit other than the target load (IE: starter motor in this case) doesn't exceed a specific amount. Usually about 0.250v (250 millivolts).

At any rate, there are many, many excellent youtube videos and written tutorials about volt drop testing on the web. It's one of the handiest "tools" you can have when troubleshooting circuits.

And, again, your description of what's happening describes a classic poor connection scenario whether it is in the 1-2-BOTH switch as Ian suggested or elsewhere. Volt drop can help you find it if you take the time to learn about it.

Good luck.

Great info, thank you! I will research the test and see what I can determine.

To provide some feedback for anyone coming across this topic, I replaced the ring terminal on the positive connection to the battery cable, fished Saturday and Sunday with no issues. It didn't "look" bad at all but was a simple step to try.

Of course my 3-week old Garmin Auto Pilot quitting working. It's always something.

Congrats on finding the problem....I hope!

Did you use volt drop to find it or just take a shot? I'm assuming you just took a guess at it and it worked for you. One thing hard to argue with is success.

Volt drop is IDEAL for finding faults like this but I'm fully aware that not everyone fully gets the concept of testing a circuit while it's working OR just isn't convinced that it's a "real thing". It took me a while and some practice before I came to believe in it as firmly as I do now.

Anyway, glad you found it and thanks for the report.

The positive connection seemed most likely and was something I have the parts on hand for and only takes a few minutes so I did that first.

I did save the info on the voltage drop for the future. It seems useful for a wide range of troubleshooting.

Thanks for all the help.