This suggests it is a battery problem. Could be poor connections or could be the battery. Check and clean all the connections, including the mounting bolts. The starter is probably case grounded, thus the bolts are part of the circuit. Pay particular attention to the DC- cable from the engine to the DC- bus or battery. Poor connections or corroded wire will cause this symptom.What's it do when you hit the start button? It was trying to turn over but never seemed to get enough compression to fire?
Hmm... no idea! My connectors and wiring looked good , at least what I could see.This suggests it is a battery problem. Could be poor connections or could be the battery. Check and clean all the connections, including the mounting bolts. The starter is probably case grounded, thus the bolts are part of the circuit. Pay particular attention to the DC- cable from the engine to the DC- bus or battery. Poor connections or corroded wire will cause this symptom.
If you have tried to start it a lot, the battery may need charging.
Here's a photo from a friend's boat. He too was having trouble starting. Any guesses?
View attachment 225610
OK. I will try 1/8 next time. I didn't notice any white smoke though on startup BUT I wasn't looking for it either.Good news about the start success.
With a charged battery and good connections to the starter, you should get a strong cranking of the starter motor to drive compression. If this is not the case, my first consideration is the battery. Second the wiring and connections between battery/starter switch/starter.
1/4 might be a bit rich. While all engines have their own peculiarities I tend to set the fuel at 1/8th or less. Just a wee bump above idle. When your engine starts, if you see a white puff of smoke that eventually disappears the start was too rich. The white smoke is unburnt fuel.
That you got it started again is great. May you have a long and joyful cruising history together.
I went down last night and the engine cranked on second push. I let it run for 2 hrs and it ran fine the whole time.
Maybe next time instead of letting it run for 2 hours, after it starts up let it run for 10 minutes. Then shut it down for 30 minutes and see how quickly/easily it starts the 2nd time.
The 2GM needs to be at pretty much full throttle for starting. Reduce it to idle speed as soon as it fires up. It uses the heat generated by compression to start, so the cooler the engine and fuel are, the slower it is to start.OK. I will try 1/8 next time. I didn't notice any white smoke though on startup BUT I wasn't looking for it either.
Batttery charging and charging systems are a whole new field for the new boat owner/sailor.The batteries are new with a new trickle charger on them so they shouldnt be the issue.
Good in theory. In practice, not so much. Trickle chargers, those that provide ~1a of charge current are designed to off set the normal self-discharge rate of about ~1a per day. If you do the math, they don't do much for recharging a battery.I suspect the new batteries I had didn't have quite the charge I needed. After a day on the trickle charger the engine started up on second attempt. That's my theory anyway.