Starter trouble....

[Scott]

I went out to the boat today for the first time since commisioning and went to fire it up and it would not crank over. In fact the warning whistles didnt work either when I turned the key.I checked the batteries on my Heart interface and they were fine I checked the battery switch and tried all positions. I tried other electrical devices including High draw items they all worked. I then checked and there was no power at the key switch, I looked for a fuse and only found 1 righht next to the starter motor solenoid. It was OK as there was power on both sides of it. I went to the top of the harness right before it gets to the key switch and there is no power there. Any ideas? And yes I did jump the solenoid with a screw driver and the starter did crank over...Scott

 

[Scott]

Did some troubleshooting...

Did some more work on the problem yesterday. I have found that if I apply 12 volts to the battery side of the key switch the boat warning systems and starter operate normally. This leads me to believe the Battery or B+ lead from the solenoid is broken. I Spoke with someone who told me Hunter cuts the original Yanmar wiring harness to lengthen it. What I was wondering is if anyone else has had a problem with this and if they know the location of the splices?Scott

 

[Ed Schenck]

Sure you checked...

all the fuses? I know nothing about the H340 and believe your specialist would know if there are other fuses. But my Yanmar wiring includes a 20 Amp fuse in-line between the starter solenoid and the on/off switch. This fuse is under a small plastic cover mounted on the back of the engine block, port side in my case. You can see this wiring diagram in the Photos section.

 

[Scott]

Fixed!!

Thanks for the reply Ed, I had checked the fuse you spoke of and it was good. I called Hunter this morning and as usual was promptly pointed in the right direction. It seems that this harness is indeed spliced though they were not able to give me the exact location of the splices, they gave me the locations to check. Long short of it is the removable area of the deck behind the helm needed to be lifted and under there the harnes goes into the pedestal. In there I found my wire bundle and a totally corroded connection at a butt splice in the B+ wire that goes to the key switch. The wire had totally disintegrated into a bluish green copper paste.I will be reassembleing with a waterproof butt splice, boshield and a serious taping job. Any other ideas on preventing a reoccurence?

 

[Eric Lorgus]

Use heat shrink to make waterproof connections

Scott: I'm not sure what you mean by a waterproof butt splice. The best way I know to make a long lasting connection in a harsh environment is to encapsulate the whole thing with heat shrinkable tubing, *NOT* tape. While there are some butt splices that have a small amount of heat shrink around them, to really secure this connection you want to use some heat shrinkable tubing, long enough to cover the connection on either end by 2". *THAT* should prevent a reoccurrence.