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BassmanIU

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Oct 9, 2006
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After my trip saturday, my motor would not start nor trim up/down and my electronics would not come on. The motor had been running fine all day until we tried to leave our last spot near the dock. I got home and charged all 3 batteries and hooked them back up to the boat. The trolling motor runs fine. However, the motor will still not trim up/down and the electronics will not come on. If i transfer the electronics wires to the trolling batteries, they will work. Is this a dead starting battery? Any other comments?
 
Sounds like you have a breaker (or a fuse depending on the age of the boat) blown. Check them first before you do anything else.
 
Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned that when I try to start or trim the motor, you can hear a clicking sound coming from the motor...almost like it recognizes what I'm trying to do but doesn't have the power to do it.
 
Well that's a horse of a different color. If a breaker is thrown, you shouldn't be getting a clicking noise. By chance is this one of those Optima gel batteries? I saw somewhere on the forum where they said when these go bad, they die all at once, unlike regular batteries.

The clicking certainly sounds more like a dead battery.
 
BassinBob - 2/28/2007 12:42 PM

Well that's a horse of a different color. If a breaker is thrown, you shouldn't be getting a clicking noise. By chance is this one of those Optima gel batteries? I saw somewhere on the forum where they said when these go bad, they die all at once, unlike regular batteries.

The clicking certainly sounds more like a dead battery.
Click to expand...

Yeah...sorry for the ommission. They are everstart batteries. I was thinking dead battery but wasn't sure. I've got a warranty so I'll just go get a new one and try it. If that doesn't work, then I know it's not the battery. Also, when I hooked the electronics over to the trolling motor batteries, everything came on. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with a spark plug or not.
 
If everything works when you connected it to the trolling batteries, then you probably have a bad battery. The only other thing would be that your charger wasn't charging. Do you have an on board charger or do you charge each battery individually?
 
The relay for the power trim could make a clicking sound in a low battery condition but would not impact all the other stuff that's not working. Sounds like a bad battery.
 
Awesome...haha. It's still under warranty so no issue there. That makes sense. Thanks for the quick replies and help. It's too nice out NOT to be on the water!

Corey
 
Awesome...haha. It's still under warranty so no issue there. That makes sense. I'm charging my batteries individually until I can get an onboard charger. The starting battery took forever to charge back up, but my meter said it was fully charged...does that mean anything or can it still be a dead battery? Thanks for the quick replies and help. It's too nice out NOT to be on the water!

Corey
 
When you say meter I'm assuming you mean the meter on the charger. Even if the battery is bad, the meter can still fall below 2-3 amps leading you to believe it is fully charged however, it's probably a situation where the battery is simply not accepting the charge.

Since your charger is obviously working (your trolling motor batteries are being charged OK) and when you connect another battery everything works, then by process of elimination, you have a bad cranking battery.
 
BassinBob - 2/28/2007 1:56 PM

When you say meter I'm assuming you mean the meter on the charger. Even if the battery is bad, the meter can still fall below 2-3 amps leading you to believe it is fully charged however, it's probably a situation where the battery is simply not accepting the charge.

Since your charger is obviously working (your trolling motor batteries are being charged OK) and when you connect another battery everything works, then by process of elimination, you have a bad cranking battery.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help! Sometimes I try to make simple things too difficult.
 
From the experience that I have had... when the cranking battery goes dead it will obviously fail to spin the starter fast enough to crank the engine. That clicking sound is most likely the starter trying to engage and then running out of energy and giving that "clicking" sound. (as far as clicking when you try to trim, that sounds like a relay; I believe most of them reset automatically.) I had this same problem about a year ago both with the relay on my trolling motor battery and having a bad cranking battery. Get you a new battery and some ears to run the motor in your yard with the water hose hooked up to it and you will be able to test everything out. Like others have said, just because a charger or voltmeter shows that you have 12 volts does not mean you have the amps needed to crank. Watch the voltage gauge on your console and see what it drops to when you try to turn the motor over; if it drops all the way down then your battery is dead. I believe if it only drops a little that the battery is good. Forum please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this as I'm still a new boat owner myself. Hope that helps some Bassman. --SJ
 
stump jumper - 2/28/2007 3:38 PM

From the experience that I have had... when the cranking battery goes dead it will obviously fail to spin the starter fast enough to crank the engine. That clicking sound is most likely the starter trying to engage and then running out of energy and giving that "clicking" sound. (as far as clicking when you try to trim, that sounds like a relay; I believe most of them reset automatically.) I had this same problem about a year ago both with the relay on my trolling motor battery and having a bad cranking battery. Get you a new battery and some ears to run the motor in your yard with the water hose hooked up to it and you will be able to test everything out. Like others have said, just because a charger or voltmeter shows that you have 12 volts does not mean you have the amps needed to crank. Watch the voltage gauge on your console and see what it drops to when you try to turn the motor over; if it drops all the way down then your battery is dead. I believe if it only drops a little that the battery is good. Forum please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this as I'm still a new boat owner myself. Hope that helps some Bassman. --SJ
Click to expand...

Even if it doesn't have enough to trim or start the motor, shouldn't it have enough to run the electronics?
 
I BELIEVE IF YOU TEST THE BATTERY WITH A VOLTMETER ..A GOOD HOT BATT WILL READ 13 1/2....I REMEMBER THAT FROM SOMETHING ABOUT A STARTER PROBLEM YEARS AGO...
INDIVIDUALLY YOUR ELECTRONICS PROBABLY SHOULD WORK EVEN ON A NEAR DEAR BATTERY BUT IF THEY ARE ALL BUNDLED TOGETHER ...MAYBE NOT....MOST ONLY PULL A COUPLE OF AMPS...SOME REQUIRE MORE TO START UP THOUGH
SOUNDS LIKE YOU NEED A NEW BATT
 
Make sure you have a good connection at the battery. I would also think the electronics would come on even with a battery that wont crank the big motor.
 

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