Hi. I want to put my boat in the slip. It's a 1988 maxum bowrider,
mercruiser I/O.

I tried to start it, but it appears the battery is dead. I tried to
jump start it with the jumper, but it would not start. The voltmeter
on the dash indicates 0 bolts. Usually when you hook up the jumper
cables, the voltmeter will jump to 12 volts as soon as the wires are
connected.

I replaced the battery - same problem. I sanded the connectors to
remove any oxidation - made no difference.

Turning the key, nothing either.

The stereo turns on and plays music, but the marine radio will not. I
checked all the fuses under the dash and they all seem ok.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I am a novise boater and bought a
slip for the first time, but need to get the boat going before putting
in the water. I've trailered it the last 3 years with little problems.
PLEASE HELP! my e-mail is Thank you!

There's a big 50A or so breaker in the engine compartment ... mine's
quite visible up front, to the left. Do I know what it's for ... no ...
but maybe it needs to be reset?

Tried it. I pressed as hard as I could but the button wouldn't go in
any farther.

Only one battery? If you have two or more, maybe your 1/2/both/off (or
similar) switch is set incorrectly? If you only have one, and some
stuff plays, maybe it's your ignition switch? Only other thing I can
think is that your ground wire is disconnected at the other end from
the battery, maybe at the engine/starter?

wrote in message
oups.com...

I tried to start it, but it appears the battery is dead. I
tried to
jump start it with the jumper, but it would not start. The
voltmeter
on the dash indicates 0 bolts. Usually when you hook up the
jumper
cables, the voltmeter will jump to 12 volts as soon as the wires
are
connected.

I replaced the battery - same problem. I sanded the connectors
to
remove any oxidation - made no difference.

Turning the key, nothing either.

The stereo turns on and plays music, but the marine radio will
not. I
checked all the fuses under the dash and they all seem ok.

I don't know your boat, but my first checks would be:

1. Check and clean *all* high amperage circuit connections -
that includes the earth returns, often forgotten.

2. When you select 'start', listen for the solenoid switch to
click. If it doesn't click, clean *all* the low amperage solenoid
connections, including the earth returns.

3. If these don't work, get your portable multimeter out of the
attic. Lift the positive terminal off the battery and check the
circuit resistance through the starter motor, then through the
solenoid. Both should show just a few ohms. If they don't, there's
a break in the motor/solenoid circuit. If they're OK -

4. Check the resistance through the circuits from the battery
terminals - with the switch made.

After this, you should have narrowed the fault down to either a
line break, or a high resistance joint, and you'd know whether
it's in the solenoid circuit or the starter circuit.

Best of luck!
--
JimB
http://www.jimbaerselman.f2s.com/
Describing some Greek and Spanish cruising areas

4. Check the resistance from further up the circuit - nearer the
battery and trace

Check the ground connected to the engine.


"News f2s" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...

I tried to start it, but it appears the battery is dead. I tried to
jump start it with the jumper, but it would not start. The voltmeter
on the dash indicates 0 bolts. Usually when you hook up the jumper
cables, the voltmeter will jump to 12 volts as soon as the wires are
connected.

I replaced the battery - same problem. I sanded the connectors to
remove any oxidation - made no difference.

Turning the key, nothing either.

The stereo turns on and plays music, but the marine radio will not. I
checked all the fuses under the dash and they all seem ok.

I don't know your boat, but my first checks would be:

1. Check and clean *all* high amperage circuit connections - that
includes the earth returns, often forgotten.

2. When you select 'start', listen for the solenoid switch to click. If
it doesn't click, clean *all* the low amperage solenoid connections,
including the earth returns.

3. If these don't work, get your portable multimeter out of the attic.
Lift the positive terminal off the battery and check the circuit
resistance through the starter motor, then through the solenoid. Both
should show just a few ohms. If they don't, there's a break in the
motor/solenoid circuit. If they're OK -

4. Check the resistance through the circuits from the battery terminals -
with the switch made.

After this, you should have narrowed the fault down to either a line
break, or a high resistance joint, and you'd know whether it's in the
solenoid circuit or the starter circuit.

Best of luck!
--
JimB
http://www.jimbaerselman.f2s.com/
Describing some Greek and Spanish cruising areas

4. Check the resistance from further up the circuit - nearer the battery
and trace

News f2s wrote:

Turning the key, nothing either.

The stereo turns on and plays music, but the marine radio will
not. I
checked all the fuses under the dash and they all seem ok.


I don't know your boat, but my first checks would be:

1. Check and clean *all* high amperage circuit connections -
that includes the earth returns, often forgotten.

2. When you select 'start', listen for the solenoid switch to
click. If it doesn't click, clean *all* the low amperage solenoid
connections, including the earth returns.

3. If these don't work, get your portable multimeter out of the
attic. Lift the positive terminal off the battery and check the
circuit resistance through the starter motor, then through the
solenoid. Both should show just a few ohms. If they don't, there's
a break in the motor/solenoid circuit. If they're OK -

4. Check the resistance through the circuits from the battery
terminals - with the switch made.

After this, you should have narrowed the fault down to either a
line break, or a high resistance joint, and you'd know whether
it's in the solenoid circuit or the starter circuit.

There's one other item to check: many boats run the solenoid current
through a microswitch on the gear shift that ensures that the vessel
is in neutral when starting. This is especially important in a power
boat with large engines! The solenoid current is actually rather high
(20+ Amps?) so a voltage drop is possible. The traditional way of
checking this is to put a screwdriver across the solenoid terminals,
but there are obvious risks to this! (A friend did this by mistake
while under his car, which promptly jumped off the jackstands and ran
him over!) Another way to test might be to jumper at "ignition key"
switch, where a pair of wires could be headed towards the gearshift.

If this is a problem, you can use a small relay (under $10 at Radio
Shack) so that only a tiny current has to make the trip through the
various switches towards the starter. The small relay switches the
solenoid (which is a larger relay) to run the starter.

Jeff wrote:

Turning the key, nothing either.

....


If this is a problem, you can use a small relay (under $10 at Radio
Shack) so that only a tiny current has to make the trip through the
various switches towards the starter. The small relay switches the
solenoid (which is a larger relay) to run the starter.

One more thing that might "go without saying" but I'll say anyways: if
the boat has the "neutral lockout" switch, the boat must in in neutral
to start! If you can look in the shift lever mechanism and you see
wires there, it means there's a switch. Sometimes just jiggling the
shift is enough to start the engine.

On Tue, 11 Apr 2006 08:41:36 -0400, Jeff wrote:

Sometimes just jiggling the
shift is enough to start the engine.

Yes, good point.