wiring problems=bad day on the lake

[Jake202]

So we went out tuesday to do a little boating... Got to the boat and it wouldn't start. Sounded like a dead battery. So i plug my onboard charger up and wait for abt 30 mins and still nothing...after reading abt the on board charger and saying it may take several hrs to charge, i go to walmart and purchase a battery charger/jump start thing that u plug into a main plug... well after opening it, we realize that it has to stay plugged up to charge its self for 72 hrs. I knew my second battery was charged seeing how i had just taken it up there abt 2 weeks ago and charged it before i left the house. so i switch them out...still sounds like a dead battery....so i mess with the cables and i notice that the positve cable is a little warm, but just blew it off as nothing major. Finally get it started and the motor, as always, purrs right along. Get to the middle of the lake and swim for a few hrs just having fun. Go to start the motor to leave, and nothing happens...so i go to see whats wrong this time and make sure both wing nuts are tight around the cables and burnt the crap out of my fingers when i touched the positive side of the battery...we get to looking and when we are trying to start the motor, it starts sparking/smoking. So we have to get a tow back to the slip. We were thinking that we have a short in it somewhere, but when my uncle went up there this morning, he couldn't find anything, so going to have a mechanic check it out in the next couple of days... Srry abt the long post.

[rbiederwolf]

Hope it is nothing major. Nothing worse than good plans going to heck

[GregF]

Heat is a sign of a bad connection.

Watts is heat and it is a function of the square of the current times the resistance.

[Jake202]

Well guy says its the starter... Guess I will have it rebuilt this weekend...

[oldmn19]

Double check the simple things first, battery grounds, motor to battery connections, remove and clean! even tight dirty connections won't work! Good Luck and take it slow with replacements.