Half Fast
Member
OK - here's what happened. My batteries were 3 years old and I was trying to stretch the rest of this season out of them. No real problems were noted prior to this incident other than they weren't holding a charge as long, especially one of them ..
So Labor day weekend the marina I usually trek to was full, so we decided to anchor in a nearby cove. As soon as I went to drop the anchor with the windlass my engine shut off. Attempts to start the engine resulted in just a click. Checked the voltage and it was way down, 10 volts tops. Drifted into a nearby houseboat and we tried hooking up a spare battery he had, still wouldn't start. BoatUS tow guy came, tried jumping it off his running engine, it turned over once for about a second, didn't fire. After that it wouldn't turn over again.
I replaced both batteries this weekend .. still won't turn over. I hit the reset breaker on the engine, tried to start it, it turned over again for about a second, didn't fire. Now again since then I just get a single "click" from the engine.
So - what do you guys think happened? Did the amp draw from engaging the windlass finally "blow" one or both of my old batteries? Could trying to start the engine with the severely reduced voltage from the damaged batteries have fried the starter? Is it all a coincidence and my engine decided to take a crap at the exact same time I engaged the windlass motor?
I'm not sure where to go from here. New batteries, clean terminals, and even gave them a full days charge above and beyond how they came. I don't think its the slave solenoid because I can definitely hear a click whenever I try to start it and also like I said it had turned over (albeit for a very short interval) twice. Is it the solenoid that's on the starter? The starter itself? Any way to test? It doesn't look like getting the starter off is going to be very easy.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!
So Labor day weekend the marina I usually trek to was full, so we decided to anchor in a nearby cove. As soon as I went to drop the anchor with the windlass my engine shut off. Attempts to start the engine resulted in just a click. Checked the voltage and it was way down, 10 volts tops. Drifted into a nearby houseboat and we tried hooking up a spare battery he had, still wouldn't start. BoatUS tow guy came, tried jumping it off his running engine, it turned over once for about a second, didn't fire. After that it wouldn't turn over again.
I replaced both batteries this weekend .. still won't turn over. I hit the reset breaker on the engine, tried to start it, it turned over again for about a second, didn't fire. Now again since then I just get a single "click" from the engine.
So - what do you guys think happened? Did the amp draw from engaging the windlass finally "blow" one or both of my old batteries? Could trying to start the engine with the severely reduced voltage from the damaged batteries have fried the starter? Is it all a coincidence and my engine decided to take a crap at the exact same time I engaged the windlass motor?
I'm not sure where to go from here. New batteries, clean terminals, and even gave them a full days charge above and beyond how they came. I don't think its the slave solenoid because I can definitely hear a click whenever I try to start it and also like I said it had turned over (albeit for a very short interval) twice. Is it the solenoid that's on the starter? The starter itself? Any way to test? It doesn't look like getting the starter off is going to be very easy.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!