Lost all power to boat-where are the fuses?

L

Leardriver

Active Member
May 24, 2016
308
Denver, CO
Boat Info
2004 270 Sundeck 8.1 Bravo III
Engines
5.0, 5.7, 6.2 8.1 Bravo III over the years
2004 270 Sundeck 8.1, accidentally touched the wrong battery cables together when installing a new battery. Stone dead at ignition switch and resettable circuit breaker next to engine ECM.

I hear of a fuse on the starter, which is virtually impossible to reach, and a 15 amp ignition fuse on the purple wire.
Any idea where that purple wire ignition fuse is? The little fuse box in front of the helm is dead, and if I solve the other problems, I suspect I will get that back.

The Perko switch is sending good power to the big battery cable going to the starter, but I can't reach any of the other wires around there. I'm going to build a 12 inch probe extension.

Of course, I have a trip to Lake Powell in a day, with people flying in from Maine and Illinois.
 
take a jumper from the + battery and try connecting it to the alt orange output post. If you have a fuse at the starter this will bypass it and allow you to start the motor
 
Thanks for the response. The 90 amp fuse on the starter was cooked. The fact that it did it's job is great.
How you guys get to those parts is worthy of a Nobel prize.

I found an old post of your that said that the alternator is likely to be cooked also. The key was off, don't know if that matters. If I have to replace it, so be it. A penalty for carelessness.
 
if anything you just took out the diodes or the fuse blew before you took out the diodes. The reason everything went dead is because your main power is connected to that fuse. But upstream from that fuse is a 50A circuit breaker. I put the main power directly to the starters battery post ,your still protected by the circuit breaker and use a maxi-fuse in place of the oem one. A lot easier to replace
 
Disaster has struck. While replacing the 90 amp fuse on the starter, the solenoid terminal broke off. Looks like weakened plastic from heat cycles. I can't get to the starter to remove it. There's a monstrous 8.1 road block in the way.
Any tip on getting to a starter when you can't reach it?
 
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Leardriver said:
Disaster has struck. While replacing the 90 amp fuse on the starter, the solenoid terminal broke off. Looks like weakened plastic from heat cycles. I can't get to the starter to remove it. There's a monstrous 8.1 road block in the way.
Any tip on getting to a starter when you can't reach it?
Click to expand...
You may want to hire someone who knows about these things. That would be my tip.
 
I am not against that. I know about these things, I could change a starter on an engine stand in 1 minute. But, my oldness, fatness, and lack of long arms are all going to be impediments to reaching that reclusive starter.
 
I think they install the starters and the water pumps (at least the v-Drive water pumps) on big block small boats right after they pop the hull out of the mold, and then start putting the rest of the boat on top of those parts.

I am going to put a hidden camera on my boat the next time I pay to have engine work done. I know that they have skinny elves that do that work and once winter comes they head to the north pole to work for Santa.

Sorry, that is no help, but I have left too much of my skin and scalp scraped on various parts in the bilge to ever attempt a starter replacement.
 
Starter replaced, along with 90 amp fuse attached to it. Hard part to reach. Boat runs perfectly, charging well, so the alternator survived the assassination attempt. The old starter was literally crumbling and corroding away. I am still not convinced that OEM parts are any more durable or worth a penny more.
 

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Roger that. Almost all parts are made in China. I bought the starter from a company in Detroit called Michigan rebuilders, and still got a Chinese part. My Mercedes and BMW are full of Chinese parts, and my wife's new '18 Accord is also.
 
Well let me say , there's a huge difference in quality between OEM and say a Chinese parts peddler like DB Electrical.
 
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Looks like you could of got away with replacing the solenoid that was rotten.
 
I would not be against that either, but reaching it was equal parts torture compared to replacing the 15 year old starter.
 
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