Shorted starter commutator. One winding shorted to ground, somewhere.
If any other winding ends up where it stops, the starter will run,
passing the shorted winding fast enough you won't see it until the
arcing has consumed the brushes, at which point you are DEAD IN THE
WATER.....(d^



On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 22:26:11 GMT, "Capt. Frank Hopkins"
wrote:

I was down to the dock today, and one of my neighbors was having a fit
with his Searay 27. When he tried to turn the port engine over, all the
power in the boat would die. No lights, no electronics, no nothing. We
checked the batteries, checked the grounds and positive battery leads,
cleaned them and made sure the engine side connections were tight.

Same deal. Turn the key and the boat goes dark. Ok, lets try a different
approach. We turned the key for the starboard engine, it fires up right
away. No problems. All power is on and the stereo is playing merrily.

Turn key for port engine, something in the engine room makes a hell of a
chattering noise, the engine starts! The problem has not reoccurred in
half a dozen re-starts on the portside only system.

Anyone want to take a guess? It has both of us baffled.

Capt. Frank



Larry W4CSC

"Very funny, Scotty! Now, BEAM ME MY CLOTHES! KIRK OUT!"