No Start Troubleshooting

[LS1boarder]

35 minutes ago, justgary said:

But you didn't say if that 14v is referenced to the battery lug, the engine ground, or the case of the starter itself.  If you have a bad ground wire, testing voltage from the battery lug only isn't enough.  If your 14v was referenced to the starter case, I would agree that your starter needs work.

By the way, if the starter is bad it likely just has carbon buildup from the brushes wearing.  It is pretty easy to clean it yourself.

 

Thanks man, if this isn’t it then it’s got to be a ground wire somewhere. We tested the engine ground and a few others including the battery, the one that comes from under the dash, etc. Just not sure where the one that goes through the stringer to the back of the boat ends up. I couldn’t find where that grounds. But since everything else works, I don’t think the starter would use that ground anyways. 

[justgary]

The starter uses the main big ground wire from the battery to the engine.  It is normally attached at what would be the rear of the starboard head on a direct drive, so forward and port side on a vee drive.

You may also have more ground wires on the other head as well.  Make sure they are all clean and tight.

[LS1boarder]

1 hour ago, justgary said:

The starter uses the main big ground wire from the battery to the engine.  It is normally attached at what would be the rear of the starboard head on a direct drive, so forward and port side on a vee drive.

You may also have more ground wires on the other head as well.  Make sure they are all clean and tight.

Ok new starter didn’t do it. The main ground wire I found goes from the battery directly to the ground post on the starter. Unless there’s some sort of distribution block under the floor board, that one is connected well. Any clue if that’s one wire or if it has a distro under the floor?

[justgary]

5 hours ago, LS1boarder said:

Ok new starter didn’t do it. The main ground wire I found goes from the battery directly to the ground post on the starter. Unless there’s some sort of distribution block under the floor board, that one is connected well. Any clue if that’s one wire or if it has a distro under the floor?

I have never seen a ground post on a starter, just +12V.  Please post a photo.

[csleaver]

On the Indmar Ford Raptor engines there is a ground stud for the battery ground cable on the starter mounting bolt.  This is what it looks like.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fj46cer2etlnfi1dg2zxn/2018-Raptor-starter-ground-stud.jpg?rlkey=pyiqawrlcmj7ek0tydqynao4e&dl=0

[csleaver]

There is a power distribution post that is mounted to the port stringer near the transmission mount.  It has the power cable from the battery switch, the starter power cable, and the wedge/surfgate relay cable on it it.  The battery ground cable is mounted to the starter bolt/stud with the engine harness ground and intermediate engine to boat harness ground wires.  There is also a ground wire mounted to the port exhaust manifold (or sometimes to to starter ground stud) for the boat bilge harness ground and six pack relay ground.

[LS1boarder]

On 9/16/2023 at 10:30 PM, csleaver said:

There is a power distribution post that is mounted to the port stringer near the transmission mount.  It has the power cable from the battery switch, the starter power cable, and the wedge/surfgate relay cable on it it.  The battery ground cable is mounted to the starter bolt/stud with the engine harness ground and intermediate engine to boat harness ground wires.  There is also a ground wire mounted to the port exhaust manifold (or sometimes to to starter ground stud) for the boat bilge harness ground and six pack relay ground.

Thanks for all of this! So the boat is at the dealership now since I couldn’t figure it out. One thing I realized was that while I was being towed by water to the boat launch to get my disabled boat on the trailer, the prop shaft wasn’t spinning as it was before. This is the part visible from inside the boat when you look at the end of the V-Drive below the rear seat. When we were first towed in, it was spinning with the flow of the water that was moving the prop. This tells me that the boat might not actually be shifting into neutral even though it’s in neutral at the throttle. And I know it’s not the throttle mechanism since I removed my throttle and put it into my friends boat that happens to be the exact same as mine, his started right up. 

Why wouldn’t the boat be shifting into neutral? I assume this is something electronic since this boat is all throttle by wire and not a physical throttle cable. Could this be causing it? 

 

[csleaver]

The transmission can't shift into forward or reverse unless the engine is running to produce hydraulic pressure in the transmission pump.

The neutral safety switch is integrated into the shift throttle control lever, the deck harness connects to it and then goes to the round engine harness plug and to the square Deutsche 4 pin plug for the FWD shift solenoid power, REV shift solenoid power, and the neutral safety wires that go to the engine harness.  The neutral safety wires provide power from the engine fuse box, through the harnesses to the shift throttle control lever, then back through the harnesses to the starter relay in engine fuse box.  The engine ECM provides the ground to energize the starter relay when a start request is made, then the relay provides power to the starter solenoid.