Battery Switch

[Neil McDonald]

Having experienced it to be progressively more difficulty getting the engine to turn over on the start switch, I was starting to suspect that I might need the "add a second solenoid" cure which has been mentioned on this forum. I have a good battery monitoring system which says that batery is fully charged. Then some things happened to change my mind. Firsly I tried starting the engine on the house batteries and got an instantaneous and very strong positive result. Then I checked out all of the easily accessible battery conections on the starting battery and they all looked good. Then I flicked the Perko battery switch back and forwards a few times to clean the contacts and that seemed to help as it went from refusing to turn over the engine to turning it over reluctantly using the engine battery.So I have concluded that the terminals on the Perko battery switch are probably my problem. Is this a common problem? Can the terminals be cleaned? Shoudl I buy a new battery switch?Neil

 

[Farley]

none

Clean your terminals every year when you re-install your batteries

 

[Gary]

I doubt it is your switch

I was a skepic too.. but I finally added a relay (you don't need a Ford type solenoid) as per the previous posts and I have NEVER had a problem since! IT WORKS, don't even think about anything else until you add a relay. I sail a 2001 H320 and it took me about an hour to add the Bosch type relay in the engine compartment.Gary

 

[Warren M.]

My 1986 H28.5 has a Yanmar 2GM20F. It began to have starting problems now and then (i.e, hit the start button and nothing happens; hit it a second time and engine starts right up). I checked every connection and found some corrosion here and there which I cleaned up. I also took off my main switch to check the connection poles and found them ok, but found a loose crimp on one of the hot wires. Having fixed all this, I still had the occasional starting problem. I then added the 12vdc auto relay onto the solenoid (with a 30 amp fuse). Bingo, problem solved. Hope this helps.

 

[Rick]

NeilI concur with your fellow sailors. Perko switches are like a widget.. they just dont tend to go bad. My diagnosis is IMHO that you are in our club now. Yep.. you are a proud member of the "hunter too small wiring harness club". And the membership dues are the famed "special marine price". Oh and we are many. Just check the archives to browse our membership posts. You will find that everything from doing a rain dance to "moose twit" will solve your problem. Bottom line is, your stock wiring harness has too many junctions and is too small. Consequently, if you check with a volt meter, you will find your volts at the solenoid low. The relay is an excellent fix and you dont need to be a rocket scientist (just apprentace) to install it. However, upon doing this you still are using a harness that is fundamentally unsound, not dangerous. So.. with that said, I will offer you another thought that is outside the box. I started by getting enough #8 tinned, stranded (dont use solid copper for any marine application.. right fred) wire to run from the start button to the solenoid. If you have a plug on the back of the button, tis simple to connect. I then ran it along the path of my original ignition wiring right to the solenoid. I fused it with a 30 amp right next to the original. I now have a very capable, non junction, non relay, ignition system that has virtually no resistance in place AND the original is still installed in case mr murphy says hello. Just as the others will tell you, it starts now, now, now. Total cost under 30 "boat" dollars and I didnt have to mount anything in the engine bay or interpret a schematic. Food for thought. This is not to undermine the relay fix at all, just door number two that Carol Marol is standing in front of CheersRicks/v Whiskey Chaser