Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Does it seem plausible, that in towing a broken down boat, with 7 people in it, that the electrical system (stator / voltage regulator ) could get so hot, that they catch on fire?

Yep. That's what I think happened anyways.
We were enjoying the day on the lake on Sunday. Great weather, very light breeze, and water temp surprisingly warm for this time of year. We were headed back in to the boat ramp, to head home for supper, when I see a boat full of people waving at me, with the arms crossing one another type of wave. I motor over to them, notice on my depth gauge that it's only 4 feet deep where I"m at (50 yards from shore) and ask if they need help. Sure enough, they hit some rocks, and damaged their prop, badly. They were dead in the water. I offered a tow back to their ramp, and they accepted. After hooking them up, they tell me they are at the ramp on the opposite end of the lake. Should have asked that first, or offered to tow them to my ramp, and driven a person to their ramp. Anyway, that's hindsight. Took roghly 45 minutes to tow them back to their ramp, and I was watching everything I could, like a hawk. No temp alarms going off, and the motor was peeing strong the entire time. I noticed the tach quit working intermittantly, but when it did, I was pulling them less than 5mph, at 3000-3500 rpm. Well, we got them to their ramp, unhooked, and I waited in the cover for a bit, to make sure they could get the boat back onto the trailer. As I was backing out of the cove, my engine died. No biggie, I was thinking maybe I was rich, since it was just running pretty hard, and I need to burn off some fuel. I gave it a little throttle, and she started back up. It ran for maybe 30 seconds, while I was backing out of the cove, and it died again. Got her started back up again, and did the same thing. Then, on the 4th try, I couldn't get it started again. I gave it a break, and all the sudden, I smelled something hot. So, I look back at the engine, and sure as $h!t, there are 2-3 inch flames coming out of the top of the cowl. I slowly take the cowl off, and extinguish with teh fire extinguisher. Yep, now we are dead in the water.
From waht I can see, teh voltage regulator is where the fire started. It's almost completely melted, and some of the wires around it are gone too. It also melted 1 plug above that, and the stator located under the flywheel is comletely melted. Not sure of the total damage yet. I hope to get the flywheel off tonight, and do more inspecting.

My question is, does this seem like a plausable explanation for an electrical fire? Or, was I on borrowed time anyway, and there would have been a fire regardless of me pulling another boat, with 7 people in it? Again, it doesn't appear that I overheated the actual engine, as it was peeing the entire time. I will do a compression test tonight, and possibly even pull the impeller, if I looks like I might have a bad cylinder. I don't think I overheated the engine, just some of the electrical items. But that seems like a weird place for a fire just by workng the engine hard. What are you're thoughts?

I think you were on borrowed time. Towing the other boat shouldn't have anything to do with it.

As usual, I agree with Carl. It would have happened anyway in time.

Hmm. Well that has me stumped. Any guesses on what would have cause it? A short, or a faulty voltage regulator?

Surely it wouldn't have anything to do with me putting a new battery in that day, would it?
Was the intermittantly working tach a clue? Maybe the wire was shorting out on something, and it couldn't read the rpms?

Tach was probably the beginning of the end.

Greg,

I learned alot on Merc electrical when I had all my issues last year, they are all connected and it all starts with regulator or ignition switch then to stator, then to switch box (cdi).Trust me I replaced them all. all bought a used reg and stator for around 130 total I think on ebay. New switch for 25ish and new cdi for 150 not sure which one it was started with I started at cheapest and went from there once I got to cdi I was money... I wish mine was newer or yours older because I saved my reg and stator just in case they were not bad... you should have my number if you want to pick my brain give me a call. BTW that sucks trying to help but if they were weak it would definitely do it I think.

GXPWeasel wrote:Does it seem plausible, that in towing a broken down boat, with 7 people in it, that the electrical system (stator / voltage regulator ) could get so hot, that they catch on fire?

Nope. Coincidence, IMO.

If it's got tits, tires or toons, it'll give you trouble.

I think it's a coincidence as there wouldn't have been anything that was connected from one thing to the other.

GXPWeasel wrote:Hmm. Well that has me stumped. Any guesses on what would have cause it? A short, or a faulty voltage regulator?

Surely it wouldn't have anything to do with me putting a new battery in that day, would it?
Was the intermittantly working tach a clue? Maybe the wire was shorting out on something, and it couldn't read the rpms?

That is likely what caused it. I bet you were loosing a connection when your tach was acting up. I fried my voltage regulator in a similar situation. Check your connections. I bet one of the connections got loose for just a second. In my case I put a smaller battery in a larger case and when I hit a good wave the battery shifted enough to momentarily loose the connection. Tach quit working and burned wires around the stator. I replaced the stator thinking it was that. It was the voltage regulator. Next time I do the voltage regulator first. It is much easier to do. It only takes a second (or less) to fry the regulator or stator with a loose battery connection.

A little update.
We are more than likely going to file an insurance claim. For my $300 deductible, it's worth having a knowing mechanic take a look at what all went wrong, and needs to be replaced. My wife's uncle, has a very good friend who is the service manager at the Cabella's boat shop in KC. It just so happens he is coming to town tonight to look at the wife's uncle's boat, and he said he would be more than willing to stop by and take an inventory on our motor needs. Hopefully, he'll be able to get all the parts ordred, and get our boat in the shop ASAP.

I was going to try this myself, as I'm confident in almost anything mechanical. But, when I tried to remove the flywheel last night, to get to the Stator / Trigger coils, I ended up bending my puller, and the flywheel didn't even budge. I guess the plastic from the Stator / Trigger coils melted it down to the engine. I'll make sure to mention every bit of this to the mechanic, so the entire engine is checked over well.

Thanks for the opinions, and hopefully I'm back on the water soon.

Pictures of the damage to follow shortly.

Good idea Greg. That flywheel is not fun to get off let me tell you...

Okay guys.
I got the boat back, took it home to test run, before I took it to the lake. I took the engine cover off, everything appeared good, and they replaced everything they said they would. So, I hooked up the muffs, and fired her up. She started up right away, but that's when the problems started. It started up, but it acted sluggish. So,I gave it a little throttle, and it didn't do anything. That's odd, I thought, so I went to feel the fuel bulb, and it was really soft. I go to pump a little bit, and I see a nice spray of gas coming from the main line that goes into the engine. WTF? Shut off the engine, look at the line, and it's got a HUGE tear in it. This is the first time the boat was fired up since I got it back, how did the shop miss this? Call the shop back up, and ask them this. They apologize, and say they can order me the "Y" line that has the tear in it. It will take about 7 business days to get. They also tell me, they highly doubt this will fix the issue of the motor not revving up. I say order it, and ship it to my house. I hang up the phone, and I was pissed. I decide to call my local shop, and they can get me the fuel line I need ($9) in 2 days. I say get it for me. Fast forward to Friday, and I get the fuel line, and put it on the engine in about 10 minutes. As I'm putting the line on, I see the ding bats @ the shop I took the boat to, didn't attach the throttle linkage back up to the control line??? #1, why was this disconnected, #2 This will obviously fix my engine not revving up problem. Hook up the linkage, and I'm good to go. Oh, but then I notice, the tachometer is only working from 0-3,000 rpm. above that, it bounces around a lot.
Anyone have any ideas on what I can check for the tach now? Is there a bad connection, maybe the actual tach bad?

I need your help please.

Tks.

Greg,

Wow they aren't very bright seems like. My take acts up every once in awhile. I just give it a tap and it settles right in. If that doesn't work you might want to make sure all your connections are tight. Sounds like it could be a lose wire as well... they may need to throw in some plugs or something.