Tige- Starter Not Cooperating (Melted)

[TC_2006_VLX]

Posting for a buddy to seek guidance as we are out of ideas.

Last week he dropped the boat in for its maiden voyage/preseason checkup. The boat appeared to running a bit off as you would need to up the RPM for the  perfect pass to turn on. While doing misc checks to make sure everything was running properly a smell of burning plastic started to come from the engine bay. Fortunately, the boat was not taken off the trailer while doing the pre season checklist and the truck needed to just drive up the ramp. He was able to trace down the plastic smell to a 90 amp fuse on the starter which has all but melted into a unrecognizable  pile of plastic. So a new starter and fuse were ordered and installed. Unfortunately, now you can turn the key to power the all the electronics work; however, when you turn it more to engage the starter there is no crank. We have checked that there is power going to the starter, but it doesnt seem that the remote wire is conducting any when we tested that. Yes, we did check that the kill switch was correctly positioned and that the boat is in neutral.

[drh]

If you're not getting a 12v signal to the starter solenoid from the ignition switch wire then I would check the starter relay if the boat has one. Follow the ignition switch wire and see if it goes to a relay. I know mine was giving me some problems from corrosion but since I've cleaned it it's been good. In fact I would recommend a good cleaning of all the electrical connectors and terminals related to the starting circuit - funny things can happen when they get corroded.

Have you tried jumping the terminals on the back of solenoid to verify the new starter is wired correctly?

[hawaiianstyln]

those pics would give me the assumption that positive somehow grounded and burnt that up.  In taking a closer look, this appears to be some custom wiring, especially with that tape job and extended mount for the bolt.  If that was loose, it could have caused some arcing plus being vulnerable to excessive corrosion due to different metals.  I'm with @drh, follow the wires because that 1 guage wire your friend has connected can handle a lot of heat, but maybe solenoid wires didn't and burnt something else up.  Does he have a main fuse for the engine (maybe a 50 Amp) somewhere?  What engine does he have in that Tige

Edited May 14, 2019 by hawaiianstyln

[wdr]

1 hour ago, hawaiianstyln said:

those pics would give me the assumption that positive somehow grounded and burnt that up.  In taking a closer look, this appears to be some custom wiring, especially with that tape job and extended mount for the bolt.  If that was loose, it could have caused some arching plus being vulnerable to excessive corrosion due to different metals.  I'm with @drh, follow the wires because that 1 guage wire your friend has connected can handle a lot of heat, but maybe solenoid wires didn't and burnt something else up.  Does he have a main fuse for the engine (maybe a 50 Amp) somewhere?  What engine does he have in that Tige

Looks like the new cable extension arced directly to the solenoid. The tag is showing Mercury Marine, so probably the 350 Black scorpion.