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Boat won't start!


ryan25duginski

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Any help is welcome and much needed!

Boat ran like a top yesterday on the water, and today boat would not start. When key is moved to the accessory position it doesn't even beep. No sound, nothing, just dead. Tried to turn the blower, the bilge and the radio on and nothing from any of the accessories. Checked the batteries and they read fully charged with 12.7 V. Tried resetting all of the breakers and disconnecting and reconnecting all the cables. (Have not tested w/ multimeter). Ensured everything on the battery end and CB ends were securely mounted. I assume maybe a bad breaker? But would that not mean that all the breakers went bad? Which in that case would seem strange, as I am unaware of a Main Breaker on the boat. If you know of one that would be awesome! The boat is a 2000 Malibu Escape LSV. Again any help would be grateful, thanks!

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Did the key switch die?

Your best bet is to grab a volt meter or test lamp and trace the battery power until you find the place where it goes missing.

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If you have good battery voltage and no blower, it's nothing to do with the key.  Is there a main breaker on your boat somewhere, or a power switch to the batteries?

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I have tried the battery switch in the perks, in the 1/2 and all position and still have nothing. As far as a “main breaker” I don’t know if I have one. I have multiple breakers though such as radio/ignition, bilge, blower so on so forth but no main breaker 

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18 minutes ago, UWSkier said:

If you have good battery voltage and no blower, it's nothing to do with the key.  Is there a main breaker on your boat somewhere, or a power switch to the batteries?

Good point.  Sorry, I was letting the rye do the thinking for a while....

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17 minutes ago, ryan25duginski said:

I have tried the battery switch in the perks, in the 1/2 and all position and still have nothing. As far as a “main breaker” I don’t know if I have one. I have multiple breakers though such as radio/ignition, bilge, blower so on so forth but no main breaker 

There's a 50A fuse button near the ECU.  You can find that by looking around near the back of your engine on the port side of the boat.  It's a red button.  Try depressing that.  In some 2001s and earlier, Malibu ran all power to the dash via the cannon plug.  Sometime in 2001 they changed to taking positive power straight from the battery to the distribution block under the throttle.

If that tripped, you have some investigating to do.  That shouldn't trip.

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As others said you need to start checking voltage through.

can start with the first big fuse mounted by the battery.  If don’t have one try the under the dash. Look for a thicker red cable coming in and lugged to a bus bar.  Find the negative bus bar and check the voltage.  If it’s low it could be a corroded battery terminal. If it is a corroded terminals you will see good voltage across the battery but when measure from a cable It will be low.  Corroded terminals can look good but they’re not making the connection.  need to take the terminals off make baking soda paste put it on the terminals towel underneath.  The paste will eat the corrosion off

 

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@formulaben I will tonight when I get back out to the slip. 
@Dwake I had my suspicions about that red cable leading to the bus bar. It’s lugged to the buss bar and then all of the breakers are connected it it. Dumb question but I’m not very electrically inclined, how do I test it? The cable to the battery or the cable to the bus bar? 

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Just went and checked everything out. I have continuity at the both the positive and negative bus bars however the voltage at those points are weak. I went to the aft of the boat and checked the 50 watt fuze and does not depress. Correct me if I’m wrong but that would mean it’s not blown. Tested for continuity at the fuze and it is present. Any ideas? All help is appreciated. 
 

@formulaben

@Dwake

@UWSkier

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38 minutes ago, ryan25duginski said:

I have continuity at the both the positive and negative bus bars however the voltage at those points are weak.

How weak? 

23 hours ago, Dwake said:

Corroded terminals can look good but they’re not making the connection.

Totally...been there for sure.  It's a pain, and I know you already did some of this, but I'd remove EVERY single electrical contact starting at the batteries and going from there: battery connectors, master switch connectors, large fuse connections, starter and engine block ground connectors, and the connectors at the positive and negative bus bars.  With all of them, I would inspect the cable terminal/crimp for corrosion and then clean the terminals/contacts with sand paper and then re-tighten.

Check your voltage and see if it changes.  If not, then next on the list would be the 50 amp circuit breaker.  Its contactors are internal, so probably replace the unit as they are relatively cheap.

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46 minutes ago, ryan25duginski said:

@formulaben like less than 1 volt weak 

Yup,  sound like you got a corroded terminal.  Take the lugs off and keep putting a baking soda and water paste on them.  
 

like formulaben said it might be several terminals. 
 

but based on what you described how the issue wasn’t there and then was it sounds like it’s the battery terminal lugs.  Take them off use the baking soda water.  Then sand the put back on battery.  Probably back in business and can check other stuff from there.

I want to be clear here.  It will look like it’s clean but it’s not.  Remember the terminal lug is copper so if you not seeing copper it’s all corrosion.

but new stuff the cheap out and don’t use copper.  Regardless the corrosion gets eaten off and your battery post and lug are clean.  Must remove the lug from post.

the backing soda will eat the corrosion off.  Make sure you put a few towels under the lug it gets messy.  Google it

Edited by Dwake
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There is a positive and negative bus under the dash.  If you have a multimeter, put the positive lead on the positive bar and the negative on the grounding bar.  You should see 12.6-12.7v there if that's what your batt is reading at the terminals.

I'd also check between the positive terminal on the starter and the ground lug on the engine.  If you have low voltage in both of those spots but good on the battery, clean up those terminals and cable connectors.  Sandpaper is a good starting point.  With respect to the previous poster, I wouldn't break out the baking soda just yet as that can be messy.  But I do agree that those connections can be deceptive.  It's happened to me before.  Thought the battery was dead, tightened down the connections a bit more, and the boat fired right up.  Couldn't believe that with all that metal on metal contact, it wasn't a clean contact...

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@UWSkier I tested that yesterday between the two bus bars. I have continuity and voltage but the voltage is very low. Like less than 1V low. I’ll clean up the connectors and be sure to let y’all know. I appreciate the help 

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Alright gents, went back. Pulled the cable feeding power to the bus bar and had less than one volt. Followed that to the aft of the boat again. When testing the grounds, the cable connecting the perko switch to the motor had less than one volt. Tested the perko switch and had less than one volt so I bypassed the perko switch completely and got 12.8 volts to the ground on the side of the motor. Now, I have no continuity or volts to the bus bar or the cable feeding the bus bar. I ensured everything was plugged back in and tightened 

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OK, there's a bit to unpack here, so we'll take it one at a time...please don't get mad, it's just that your language isn't real specific and we need to know exactly what you're doing in order to help you out, so pardon the requests for clarification.

1 hour ago, ryan25duginski said:

Pulled the cable feeding power to the bus bar and had less than one volt.

What exactly do you mean by "pulled the cable"?  Did you remove it from a battery post or a bus bar, e.g. which end of the cable? 

Also, which bus bar at you talking about?  The positive from the battery?  The positive on the bus bar under the shifter?  I assume you're using a voltmeter...so where exactly are you checking for voltage, e.g. from the battery negative post to the positive bus bar, or engine block to the positive bus bar, or helm negative bus bar to the positive bus bar?

1 hour ago, ryan25duginski said:

When testing the grounds, the cable connecting the perko switch to the motor had less than one volt.

Again, not exactly sure where you are placing your tester probes, but when "testing the grounds" is it the battery ground(s) or negative bus grounds, or engine block ground for voltage?  I assume you are checking for voltage from the battery grounds(?), but also need you to clarify that you are testing against the positive side on the Perko switch?  If so, then if you check the same negative to the positive on the battery terminal cable (upstream from the Perko) and it is 12 volts, then between those 2 posts is where your problem is. 

1 hour ago, ryan25duginski said:

Tested the perko switch and had less than one volt so I bypassed the perko switch completely and got 12.8 volts to the ground on the side of the motor.

OK, so you took the positive leads from the Battery-->Perko-->Starter and bypassed the Perko, and then you got 12.8 volts from where to the negative ground on the motor?  Just want to be clear on this one...so both before and after the negative probe was on the same place?  If so, then you've found your problem.  It is the Perko switch.  Either the terminals are corroded (could be external OR internal) or it has a hardware failure.  If this sounds correct, then check all your systems/switches with the Perko bypassed.  If all works fine, then toss the Perko and get a new master switch. 

I am partial to the Blue Seas 5511E...but that's a whole 'nother story for later.

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usually the cables to the starter and the distribution bus are separate cables that both connect to the perko.  My Perko switch in my boat is a simple on/off, not a battery selector, but it's wired as I described.

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No worries I don’t know enough about this stuff to get mad at your questions :lol:

The first thing I tried was disconnecting the cable from the bus bar that leads to the rear of the bolt from the bus bar. When I tested for voltage there I got less than 1V but had continuity. This told me that something in the rear was sucking the power from the back of the boat to the bus bar

secondly, I tested for volts on what I believe to be the starter (again mechanically declines) I had less than 1V. 
from there I decided power wasn’t going through the isolator switch. So I disconnected the isolator switch, and ran the batteries straight to the motor instead of through the isolator. Upon doing this, I got 12.8V to the “starter?” I thought I had found the problem but nothing worked still. 
 

after that, leaving the isolator switch bypassed, I tested for continuity and volts at the bus bar again (remember I had volts though low, and continuity here before bypassing the isolator) only this time I had no continuity or volts to the cable end or just bar. 

 

 

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@UWSkier so however the guy wired the boat before, the only cables wired to the perko are the two cables leading from the battery and then the cable running to the motor from the perko 

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3 hours ago, ryan25duginski said:

The first thing I tried was disconnecting the cable from the bus bar that leads to the rear of the bolt from the bus bar. When I tested for voltage there I got less than 1V but had continuity.

OK, I hate to assume, so please confirm you're testing the positive bus bar at the helm?  If so, I ask again, where are you putting your negative probe to test for the voltage?

3 hours ago, ryan25duginski said:

This told me that something in the rear was sucking the power from the back of the boat to the bus bar

No, if something was "sucking power" then you'd have a dead battery; what you have is something restricting voltage from coming to the bus bar...an important distinction if you're troubleshooting.

3 hours ago, ryan25duginski said:

secondly, I tested for volts on what I believe to be the starter (again mechanically declines) I had less than 1V. 

Again, please tell us where you are placing the negative probe for your voltmeter to get this measurement?!

3 hours ago, ryan25duginski said:

from there I decided power wasn’t going through the isolator switch. So I disconnected the isolator switch, and ran the batteries straight to the motor instead of through the isolator.

Is this a different switch than the Perko you mentioned earlier? 

And lastly, you've been asked 2 times already, but did you find the large red circuit breaker yet?  There is a cover on the forward part of your engine, it covers the relays and the circuit breaker in on the side or under the cover there somewhere.  Unless someone removed it, you DO have one...

 

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