Electrical Problem

[CaptainT]

Batteries are new and fully charged. When you turn the key to start my Yanmar 180 you hear a clicking sound and the voltage on battery #1 drops drastically.
Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[Admiral S]

Sounds like a dead battery. Have you lightly tapped on the starter and tried again to see if the starter is bad?

 

[TexasEye]

I suspect the Starter, that is if your Batt. are OK you would hear a single click indicating power to solenoid is OK but Starter isn't running.

If Batt are low it normally clicks several times rapidly indicating not enough power to hold solenoid closed but enough to move the solenoid contact.


Check starter cable from solenoid to starter. If cable is tight on both ends then looks like the starter isn't healthy. Once you suspect the starter it isn't good to keep hitting the start switch...If you are volt meter savy disconnect the starter cable and have helper turn key to start while you check voltage... should be about the same as the helm meter reads and should not drop...if fact it wouldn't hurt to check ALL of that circuit terminals for tightness and cleanliness before futher checks.

 

[BB marine]

First confirm your new batteries are fully charged , next confirm that all connections are free from oxidation so that connections are good, confirm all connections are tight both battery terminals and stater terminal. I assume the clicking is the solenoid. If battery is charged connections are good I would troubleshoot the starter.

 

[knotflying]

Silly question. Is your battery switch on? Your will get that symptom if the switch is off. You say new and charged battery. Was the wiring installed correctly? All terminals tight? If everything checks out then, as stated, the starter is suspect. Could be a stuck solenoid or bendix gear. Give the starter and solenoid a few good wraps and see what happens.

 

[CaspersCruiser]

Double-dog check that ALL grounds were put back in place. I changed my batteries this spring while the boat was stored inside a place that was not well-lit. I missed a ground that had flopped down in a crevice. It’s easy to do with the electrical spaghetti mess that is the battery compartment. I was using a headlamp, but the crevice that the cable was in was in shadow from the lamp light. I just didn’t see it there. When I put the boat in the water and tried to start it, I got the same noise you are experiencing. All other electrical equipment worked fine. I found the unattached ground when I opened the battery compartment in the daylight and started tracing connections. Even then, it took a minute to find.

 

[tugnnaweigh]

The clicking is likely the starter mounted solenoid closing to the key signal and then popping back open due to the resulting low voltage. Throw the parallel switch to bring other batteries into the start circuit and see what happens. If this works you know the starter is OK and now back to figuring out why one, new, battery wont’ turn your motor over as it should be well capable of doing which means the load test mentioned earlier, likely where you bought it will do this for you at no charge to establish if the battery needs to be warrantied.

If it tests OK charge it back up as the load test puts a hurt on batteries and then you’re chasing the bad ground as someone here said earlier.

Check and freshen up all the grounds, engine ground, this will freshen up the starter ground as it's grounded to the engine, battery grounds, all of them, Dissemble, sand with Emery cloth, reassemble and cote with dielectric grease. Blade and plug connectors can be freshened up by disconnecting and connecting them a few times, throw a little grease in them too.

Folks here talk about adding to or replacing the main ground line to the engine. I did this on both my R25 and R29 and the electrical system seemed more lively afterward although I can't prove it.