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Help! electrical problems - 2000 (year) 150 Saltwater series

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wdave b

New member
Here's my situation: Clean plugs, I have fuel, checked my connections (many times..) w/ two fully charged batteries ( 12 - 14 volts) but when the current reaches the starter (inside the cover) it is only registering 4- 4.5 volts??? Not enough to crank or obviously start the engine???
Help!
Where is the juice going?
 
wdave b said:
Here's my situation: Clean plugs, I have fuel, checked my connections (many times..) w/ two fully charged batteries ( 12 - 14 volts) but when the current reaches the starter (inside the cover) it is only registering 4- 4.5 volts??? Not enough to crank or obviously start the engine???
Help!
Where is the juice going?
Click to expand...

The most common cause of this would be corrosion in the cable end connections (the cable terminal crimps). Use the volt meter to measure between the start battery -ve and the +ve at the starter motor (key in start position etc) and then the meter between the engine casing and the +ve terminal on the start batt. If the first reading is low the problem is in the +ve cable, but if it is good and the 2nd reading is low it is in the -ve cable (often is). Another quick check is to get someone to hold the key in the start position whilst you feel for heating at the cable ends. The hot one is the faulty one. Usually the faulty end will be easy to bend under the heat shrink whilst the good ones will be stiffer. This can all be happening under the heat shrink and could look just fine to a visual inspection.

If you have a battery switch, check the voltages at the switch terminals first to prove that the switch is OK. You will also need to check the cable ends at the switch if there is one. Most common bad cable end would be at the battery -ve terminal.

If all that is OK, you may have a faulty solenoid or starter motor, but this would be more rare. Last possibility is a bad battery. They can read OK with no load, but still collapse under load. Quick check for this is to measure across the battery terminals whilst someone turns the key. If it stays above ~11v that isn't your problem.

All these checks take about 5 minutes once you understand the principles. Good luck.
 
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