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Engine would not turn off


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I put a new 105 amp alternator in my 98 Sunsetter this summer and it caused all kinds of problems that I went into in other threads. So finally I tossed it and put my old 60 amp back in and it ran fine. So I bought a 90 amp Lacie Nevelle from Bakes on their advice that it would work perfectly in my boat. It sat on my bench for a couple months and now that I am winterizing I figured I should put it in. Installation went perfectly after I finally found a metric v groove pulley to put on it.

Now for the interesting part. I winterized the boat and then put the alternator in. Parked the boat in the barn and threw some Stabil in the tank. Thought about it for a second and decided to turn over the engine for 10 seconds to distribute some stabil into the injectors. Put the battery in and started it up. The gauges went nuts. Volt meter was all over the place. Quickly decided to shut down. Engine would not shut down when key was turned. So I pulled the emergency lanyard. Nope. Disconnected the battery. Nope. Shut off the fuel line. Nope. Engine now decides to start revving higher and lower and smoke starts pouring out of the exhaust. Did I mention that I am no longer hooked up to the fake a lake? The engine ran for a good 4 minutes like this until it finally quit.

Now when I turn the key to the left the gauges are dead.

So now a little history. The negative lead and positive lead to the alternator are wired correctly. The ACC lead on the alternator goes to the purple wire coming from the dash. I ran a 2AWG wire from the positive lead on the alternator to the starter motor ( on my mechanics advice). Is this the problem? Should it run to the battery? Did I fry my ECM? Is the ECM incompatible with the new alternator? If the ECM ran fine with my 110 AMP alternator why wouldn't it run fine with my 90 AMP?

Most importantly, did I just seize my engine and how do I determine that?

At this point the boat is dead and it is about to get very cold here in the next 72 hours. I would sleep a lot better for the next 8 months if I could solve this problem before I put my favorite toy away for the winter.

Please help if you can.

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I put a new 105 amp alternator in my 98 Sunsetter this summer and it caused all kinds of problems that I went into in other threads. So finally I tossed it and put my old 60 amp back in and it ran fine. So I bought a 90 amp Lacie Nevelle from Bakes on their advice that it would work perfectly in my boat. It sat on my bench for a couple months and now that I am winterizing I figured I should put it in. Installation went perfectly after I finally found a metric v groove pulley to put on it.

Now for the interesting part. I winterized the boat and then put the alternator in. Parked the boat in the barn and threw some Stabil in the tank. Thought about it for a second and decided to turn over the engine for 10 seconds to distribute some stabil into the injectors. Put the battery in and started it up. The gauges went nuts. Volt meter was all over the place. Quickly decided to shut down. Engine would not shut down when key was turned. So I pulled the emergency lanyard. Nope. Disconnected the battery. Nope. Shut off the fuel line. Nope. Engine now decides to start revving higher and lower and smoke starts pouring out of the exhaust. Did I mention that I am no longer hooked up to the fake a lake? The engine ran for a good 4 minutes like this until it finally quit.

Now when I turn the key to the left the gauges are dead.

So now a little history. The negative lead and positive lead to the alternator are wired correctly. The ACC lead on the alternator goes to the purple wire coming from the dash. I ran a 2AWG wire from the positive lead on the alternator to the starter motor ( on my mechanics advice). Is this the problem? Should it run to the battery? Did I fry my ECM? Is the ECM incompatible with the new alternator? If the ECM ran fine with my 110 AMP alternator why wouldn't it run fine with my 90 AMP?

Most importantly, did I just seize my engine and how do I determine that?

At this point the boat is dead and it is about to get very cold here in the next 72 hours. I would sleep a lot better for the next 8 months if I could solve this problem before I put my favorite toy away for the winter.

I am pretty sure the puple wire should not be connected to anything. On your original alternator the purple lead connected to the "exciter" terminal which requires a 12V input which it gets from the purple wire. The new alternator is self excited ... at lr-east the 90A Leece Neville alternator that we sell is... so the purple wie is not used. The problem came when you hooked the purple lead to one of the AC terminals which are actually voltage outputs from the alternator. When the purple lead has voltage applied to it, it activates the ignition, fuel pump and ECM. Disconnect the purple wire from the alternator and you should be OK. I think your engine will be OK... just make sure to put in a new impeller in the raw water pump.

Edited by Engine Nut
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jkendallmsce

I am pretty sure the puple wire should not be connected to anything. On your original alternator the purple lead connected to the "exciter" terminal which requires a 12V input which it gets from the purple wire. The new alternator is self excited ... at lr-east the 90A Leece Neville alternator that we sell is... so the purple wie is not used. The problem came when you hooked the purple lead to one of the AC terminals which are actually voltage outputs from the alternator. When the purple lead has voltage applied to it, it activates the ignition, fuel pump and ECM. Disconnect the purple wire from the alternator and you should be OK. I think your engine will be OK... just make sure to put in a new impeller in the raw water pump.

Thanks Larry,

It is great that the folks at Indmar visit the site from time to time to help us out.

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Yikes, sorry you had to go thru all that. Boat won't shut off, always go for the primary wire (plugs, not the wire) at the coil. With that purple wire hooked up and the alternator turning it will keep giving power to the ignition circuit (purple wire)

Larry is right, in your situation the purple wire should not be hooked up to anything as the 90 amp alternator is self exciting.

-Paul

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Thank you all for your responses. I will pull the purple wire and hope that the boat will start again. BTW the closest dealer to me used to be 5 hours away near Kallispell. I am not really sure they are even a dealer for Malibu anymore. That is the price I pay for living in MT.

Next time if this should ever happen I will be sure to pull the wire to the coil. I was really surprised at how long the boat ran with the fuel shut off. I just hope I didn't ruin anything.

Thanks again

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Ok, you say you are five hours plus to the nearest dealer, so can you post some more information?

Did I mention that I am no longer hooked up to the fake a lake? The engine ran for a good 4 minutes like this until it finally quit.

Q) did you run the engine without water?

Now when I turn the key to the left the gauges are dead.

Q) my key turns to the right and left is off? what you mean here?

did I just seize my engine and how do I determine that?

Q Where you able to get it started again after removing the wire as others suggested?

Q Have you winterized your boat successfully in the past?

Edited by Bozboat
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Sure hope the engine is okay. Wow. Check the raw water impellar first of course. How high do you estimate the rpm's got?

Did the engine feel real hot? What was the air temp at time?

Let us know how it goes,

Steve B.

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Ok, you say you are five hours plus to the nearest dealer, so can you post some more information?

I live in Bozeman MT. The nearest dealer is in Kallispell or Spokane.

Q Where you able to get it started again after removing the wire as others suggested?

Only after I traced down two blown fuses.

Q Have you winterized your boat successfully in the past?

16 years of winterizing my own boat. But since I do it once a year I sometimes get the order of things screwed up. Especially when we have a sudden freeze and I am in a hurry. It has been in the eighties during the days for the past month but it is supposed to snow Friday and get to 22. My mistake was not running it with Stabil right off the bat.

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It appears that all is well with the boat. I took the purple wire off and now it shuts down fine with the key. I did blow the 20 Amp fuse under the dash for power to the helm. Not sure why that happened. It is really bizarre to not be able to turn off your boat. I will replace the impeller in the spring as always and hope that their are no problems next year related to this issue. The engine got pretty hot but not so hot that I couldn't put my hand on the exhaust manifold. Keeping my fingers crossed.

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  • 4 years later...

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