I wanted to tack on to a post Kimelmore started recently about a Westerbeke that wouldn't start. I have a similar situation on a 2001 Beneteau 331 w/a 30B engine and the Captain's Panel. I turned the key and got the alarm for a split second and then in went silent. I thought the buzzer might have just gone bad, or maybe the switch. I pulled the panel and I had power at the switch and I even jumped the switch but nothing. I have power at the starter but nothing happens at all on the panel when I turn the key. The Captains panel has a test button and nothing lights up when I hit that either. There is power at the 20A breaker on the back of the engine but again nothing is happening when I push the button. It was running just fine a couple days before, although I had a similar problem a couple years ago that a mechanic couldn't find but it started working again. I thought maybe it was just a switch so I replaced that but no luck.
The one odd thing is that when I turn the switch (key) the power drops from every contact, at the switch, at the breaker, it reads zero and possible goes negative (the needle seems to move to negative but hard to tell). I looked for a ground fault by taking off the battery cable and bridging the pole and the cable to see if I got a reading and that was negative. I think there are some kill switches in the engine that shut it down when it over heats or pressure is off but not sure why they would kick in before it starts. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The one odd thing is that when I turn the switch (key) the power drops from every contact, at the switch, at the breaker, it reads zero and possible goes negative (the needle seems to move to negative but hard to tell). I looked for a ground fault by taking off the battery cable and bridging the pole and the cable to see if I got a reading and that was negative. I think there are some kill switches in the engine that shut it down when it over heats or pressure is off but not sure why they would kick in before it starts. Any suggestions would be appreciated.