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Starting troubles

1K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  h37skipper 
#1 ·
I have an older 10.5 metre Beneteau Idylle which I daysail and coastal cruise in and around Sydney.

Just lately, I am having trouble with my batteries and/or switches.

The first attempt to crank is met with the fatefull click of a dead battery bank. However, if I rotate the switches (both, 1 & 2)once or twice, I will get a feeble crank for a few seconds and then nothing. After repeating the rotation of the switches yet again, I get perfectly strong cranking and an engine start. After that, all is well - until next week.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Raybies
 
#2 ·
raybies,

If rotating the battery switches causes the failure to be intermittent, suspect a bad switch. I would not stop there, however. You should thoroughly check every wire and connection between your batteries and the engine starter motor. Make sure everything is clean, free of corrosion, and all connections are tight.

Don''t delay in resolving this or you will likely regret it soon. Good luck.

Duane
 
#3 ·
Sorry I have just seen your post.

You probably want to look at this previous post
http://members.sailnet.com/messageboard/schmessage.cfm?Forum=4&Topic=4819

However, the symptoms described, might well also mean that your engine has at least one cylinder flooded with water. So you need to also check the riser installation, and or siphon break system.

Water cannot be compressed as air. So the Click when pressing the start button could mean that the batteries are not strong enough to move the engine while a piston is compressing water. Then you connect 2nd. battery , provide more power and get to start. DUring the week, something happens. You might try closing the engine water intake.

Hope this is not your problem. Quite expensive.

Regards

Fernando
 
#5 ·
I agree with the two previous posts, the problem is likely the 12V supply to engage the solenoid. A wiring diagram for my boat shows small wire and eight connections between the battery and the solenoid. There are two end connections, two at ignition key, two at the start button, and two at an inline fuse. Any one of those being slightly loose or corroded along with too small wiring will cause your symptoms.

I solved this a different way. I mounted a $35. starter relay on the bulkhead next to the starter. This relay uses much less current. Have had no start problems since.
WM Link for "Solenoid-12V
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=431"

Before the relay fix I had replace wiring, the key switch, the pushbutton, and had the starter and solenoid rebuilt. All to no avail! :)
 
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