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F150 initially wouldn't turn over, then it was fine

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Suncoast61

New member
Hi, I have a well-maintained 2015 F150 4-stroke with 760 hours and it's been flawless for years. This morning I lowered it into the water and the tilt/trim sounded strong, but then it refused to turn over when I turned the key. I got a single click and then silence. After trying several times with the same result, I monkeyed with the ignition switch, throttle/gear lever, checked breakers, and switched batteries, but it still did the same thing: a single gentle click and then silence. I tried about 4 more times and was about to give up when it finally turned over and fired up right away, as usual. After letting it warm up, I shut it down and tried starting several more times and it was fine.

Now I'm feeling a bit suspicious, don't want to get stuck somewhere. I ran it a week ago with no problem though the batteries were low, but running it about an hour seemed to top them off. Before that it did sit for about 6 weeks and survived two hurricanes (in the water), so I wonder if some salt water got blown in and maybe started some corrosion? I need to pull the cover and inspect. I'm no mechanic but fairly handy, what should I check?
 
Have batteries load tested.-----And perhaps water leaked into a cylinder.----Water will not compress.

Thanks, is there any reasonably priced device that will do that with the batteries in the boat, or do I have to take them out and take them somewhere? And as for water, it ran perfectly last week and today, once it started. Could it still possibly have water in a cylinder?
 
I googled load testers, prices aren't bad, so I may pick one up. I'm curious, though, if anyone knows what draws more load - the starter motor or the tilt/trim motors? Tilt/trim sounded strong before I tried to start the engine and lowering the engine takes far longer than the starter motor has to run to start it. I would guess tilt/trim puts far more load on the batteries?
 
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