MarineEngine.com does not offer troubleshooting assistance or repair advice by email or by telephone.
You are invited to join our public Boat Repair Forum to seek assistance from other members.
You may also visit the Boat Motor Manuals section of our site to obtain a service manual.
Hi,
A wiring diagram shows the starter motor fed directly from the main positive battery cable and the150A fuse fed directly off the starter motor stud via a "jumper".
The ACG fuse box is fed from a separate wire from the positive battery post.
That wire connects to the fuse box via a stud terminal on the box that is covered by a protective rubber cap.
It's possible that the connection for the fuse box feed wire is not good at the battery terminal.
Or, the connection for the fuse box wire terminal stud is loose or bad (corroded) underneath the rubber cap.
Or, the wire itself is bad.
Those are the three areas that I would be checking first.
NOTE: the diagram is vague about the color of the fuse box feed wire as it says
""Bi (W)".....
...which could mean black with white stripe. I don't know.
The diagram also doesn't list the wire gauge size. I'm guessing it's an AWG 12 but it's just a guess.
Good luck.
Hi, great I located the 2 black and white wires entering the back of the fuse box. Gave them a wriggle with the multimeter meter on and have varying voltage readings below 12 volts. To get to the post on the fuse box do I remove the fuse box from the metal bracket via the plastic clip or unbolt the entire metal bracket with the main fuse etc and access the post from the rear of the box. It’s pretty tight I don’t want to damage the box!Thanks ill have a good look at that
Well......
Sorry, I can't answer the question as I have 0% working on a 200hp Honda. I don't even think I've ever actually seen one in person.
I'm more of the "idea guy" for the big un's
My hands on experience with Honda outboards is limited to all the little twins.
All I can offer is....
...disconnect the battery
Go slow
Try to hold your tongue "just right" and be confident that you will figure it out
OH, did I say go slow?
Good
Nah this is great thanks. I’ve opened the loom and will now start cleaning and testing as I can see everything. I’ll report backWell, I think that you make a good point there. Let's start over.
I had you looking for power at the fuse block because you initially said that you had power to the 150A fuse. BUT, maybe the problem is much more simple in an "electrical circuit" sense. So, let's go back to basics....which is where I should have suggested from the beginning. This may be (probably is) a simple bad connection from the battery.to SOMEWHERE on the outboard. Corrosion is quite often the issue....especially in the marine environment.
I hope that you understand that, in an electrical CIRCUT,....(meaning circle)....
the ground connections and wiring are EQUALLY as important as the "positive" connections and wiring. We often get tunnel vision when looking for "power" in a circuit and focus just on the positive while ignoring the ground connections. That's what I did here having you looking at the fuse block. GUILTY and I apologize.
The tilt motor gets it's power from the tilt relay which is powered DIRECTLY from the starter motor stud via a white wire. IF the stud is getting voltage but the tilt doesn't work, it's highly likely that it's due to a poor ground SOMEPLACE.
So, let's take a measured approach and start checking BOTH positive AND negative battery connections starting at the battery and main cables. Remove both cables from the battery and check your battery voltage. If 12.4 volts or above, ok if lower than 12.4 volts, I would charge the battery and have it load tested just to be sure.
Thoroughly clean both cable clamps and battery posts. If you have a 1-2-both switch, remove those connections and clean them all.
With the battery or batteries disconnected, (and this is where you will start to hate me) remove ALL wires connected to the starter motor stud and clean all of those.
Here's where you will hate me even more...
...find where the main battery ground cable connects to your outboard. Most are NOT in an easily accessible place. Remove that connection and clean the mounting surface, cable eye, bolt or stud and all other wire eyelets that may be connected there.
Make ALL connections SHINY. It usually takes more than one size wire brush and maybe a battery post cleaning tool too.
If your battery tests good and everything is cleaned, put it all back together and try it again.
While this is for sure a real PITA, it will give you a solid base to start testing from if the system still gives you trouble.
In the meantime, between wire brushing and repairing nicks and scrapes to your hands and arms, Google "voltage drop testing" and bone up on that. It's absolute MAGIC for finding and solving electrical problems if you make the effort to read about it, maybe watch a couple of videos and then try it.
And, while for much of my career as a fleet truck mechanic there really were almost NO short cuts to doing electrical troubleshooting, volt drop testing IS TRULY a good one.
Hope I'm not boring you.
