Boat Lost All Power????

[mmobius2001]

so im on the lake all day today, drinking, boarding, hanging etc. towards the end of the night, we're all telling stories and hanging out, every 15-20min i hit the blower, start the motor, and move us towards the middle of the lake after drifting... do that about 4-5x.

then the water clears up for a nice boarding session. I goto start the motor, and it just revs and revs, and doesnt turn over..

i try to hit the blower, bilge, anything, my whole switch panel stops working, no power at all, no heater, no ballast, nothing.

i play with the little battery reset button, and of course nothing. i keep trying to reset all the fuses and the main battery line, finally somehow i goto start the boat, and it turns over, still no switch board power but the boat is running.

i get it to my dock spot. Park it, tie it up and play with it again, reset the battery again, all of a sudden all my power comes back on, ballast, switches everything, so i hit the blower and turn the key, it revs for a sec and everything dies again...

Any thoughts? i left it tied to dock at the moment and covered it up.

[Razzman]

Check your battery connections, sounds like one or both are loose. Also double check the safety lanyard if you have one.

[myster]

Sounds like u mighta run your batteries too low, then when you sat for a while with nothin on it/they recovered enough to start the boat. Then while getting to the dock your alternater charged them up a bit allowing the accessories to work again

[rdlangston13]

Sounds like u mighta run your batteries too low, then when you sat for a while with nothin on it/they recovered enough to start the boat. Then while getting to the dock your alternater charged them up a bit allowing the accessories to work again

if the battery is so low that the gauges dont work then i dont see how it could possibly start an engine

[schuylski]

i've seen something about the connection on the ignition switch up under the dash getting loose and causing everything to be dead.

[mmobius2001]

thanks, i'll be looking today even though its hot as a mother.

gonna go w/ connections, then ground, then check all the plugs.

also can someone tell me that battery reset switch, should the plastic tab be down or up flush?????

[mmobius2001]

UPDATE:::::

so i went out there in the 100 degree heat, since it was docked, and the bilge wasnt working the water was probably a good close to foot of water in the engine. so i wanted to act fast.

1. i checked all connections in the back of the ignition, switch panel etc, everything was secure and looking good.

2. i moved to engine compartment for any loose electrical connections

3. i checked the ignition waterproof switch that trips for the 10th time, reset it, even unscrewed the ground wire, cleaned it up.

still nothing

4. i went to the battery, connections looked great, i mean the negative was maybe a millimeter up on the battery not flush down but securely connected, so in a frustration i took my wrench that i had just used to take off the 1 ground wire i smacked the negative down to make it flusher on the battery.

all of a sudden, LIFE (still not over)

the bilge kicks on and pumps, all my switches work.

so i wait until it bilges out most of the water had to run for a good 6-8min straight.

had the engine cover open for venting so i decided to start the boat now

i hear "Click" (almost more like a tiny snap, noise similar to as if you had jumper cables had them plugged into a charged battery and then touched the other 2 ends together)

and everything goes dead again.

i bang on the cable, the panel pops on

i try one more time "snap" DEAD

good thing my girl was with me, so i fixed the cable one more time stuck my head in the battery compartment to see where this noise was coming from. had her turn it over and then i saw it.

i guess what it was, on my boat (not sure of others) my negative cable is a double cable, has the big black cord then attached is a smaller black cord that gets attached to the side using the same bolt/screw combo. what was happening is they were touching in some weird way and causing like a power shut down every time i tried to start the boat, so i readjusted it, kinda moved it upward and around instead of straight next to the main line, and boat is back running like a champ.

[cab13367]

thanks, i'll be looking today even though its hot as a mother.

gonna go w/ connections, then ground, then check all the plugs.

also can someone tell me that battery reset switch, should the plastic tab be down or up flush?????

It should be up flush.

[cab13367]

i guess what it was, on my boat (not sure of others) my negative cable is a double cable, has the big black cord then attached is a smaller black cord that gets attached to the side using the same bolt/screw combo. what was happening is they were touching in some weird way and causing like a power shut down every time i tried to start the boat, so i readjusted it, kinda moved it upward and around instead of straight next to the main line, and boat is back running like a champ.

This does not make sense. The big black cable should be the negative that goes to the starter. The smaller one is the negative for the helm buss which powers all the dash electronics and switches. Since both cables are negative and should be connected to the battery's neg post, it doesn't matter if they are next to each other or not since they both terminate at the same place.

I think you have a short somewhere but these two negative cables is not it.

[mmobius2001]

This does not make sense. The big black cable should be the negative that goes to the starter. The smaller one is the negative for the helm buss which powers all the dash electronics and switches. Since both cables are negative and should be connected to the battery's neg post, it doesn't matter if they are next to each other or not since they both terminate at the same place.

I think you have a short somewhere but these two negative cables is not it.

thats where the short was, everytime i tried to turn it over, it looked like if you hooked up jumper cables and sparked the other end together, so i readjusted the 2 negative cables on the terminal and it works flawlessly.

maybe some of the wire was partially exposed, or it was also touching some of my stereo amp cords attached to the wing nut part or something, idk but that was the problem.