Motor/Battery Issues

[Rideau_Lungehunter]

About a month ago, while fishing the Rideau, my boat wouldn't start on the water. I jumped started the battery using my trolling battery and was able to troll for about 15 minutes until my "emergency horn" went off and my depth finder went blank. I turn off the motor and tried a restart but nothing happened. I hooked up to the trolling battery again and left the connection and made it back to the launch.

Thinking that my starting battery was the problem, I replaced it with another battery I had and things seemed to be OK. However, I was out Thursday, ran the boat on and off for about six hours, then when I tried to restart the boat to put it on the trailer, not go again. Que the jump start procedure once more.

The motor is a 60 HP Merc 4-stroke. Not knowing a lot about motors, I am wondering if this is some sort of alternator problem that is allowing the battery to drain? I'd like to have some idea of what the problem is.

Any comments or suggestions by someone in the know would be appreciated.

[toobinator]

It could be that you are not running the motor enough to fully charge the cranking battery. After a few times out your battery won't turnover the main motor. A few short drives or idling does little to put juice into the battery. I would recommend putting a charger on your cranking battery after each outing.

Ed

[scarkner]

Does your boat have a battery gage (volt meter) or do you have a hand held meter?

You should see around 12.8v before starting and at least 13.5v when running.

[ady]

About a month ago, while fishing the Rideau, my boat wouldn't start on the water. I jumped started the battery using my trolling battery and was able to troll for about 15 minutes until my "emergency horn" went off and my depth finder went blank. I turn off the motor and tried a restart but nothing happened. I hooked up to the trolling battery again and left the connection and made it back to the launch.

Thinking that my starting battery was the problem, I replaced it with another battery I had and things seemed to be OK. However, I was out Thursday, ran the boat on and off for about six hours, then when I tried to restart the boat to put it on the trailer, not go again. Que the jump start procedure once more.

The motor is a 60 HP Merc 4-stroke. Not knowing a lot about motors, I am wondering if this is some sort of alternator problem that is allowing the battery to drain? I'd like to have some idea of what the problem is.

Any comments or suggestions by someone in the know would be appreciated.

Hope you have fixed this as no posts since initial. I've been fighting this one for over a year. My problem was dry connector at the regulator which cascaded into a burned out ground pin in the connector. Had it cleaned and regulator replaced at AIM but could not find a new connector. I have finally found one, ordered 2, and that's a job for the spring. High current problems a hard to find because all voltages measure okay until current is drawn, as in recharging after a start. So clean all connectors in the charging cct with contact spray and don't be scared to slap on a ton of dielectric grease - it is your friend on all electrical connectors that carry high current and repeat this yearly, I will be from now on.