North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Well it seems as though my trips are either rocks or diamonds. This was a doozy. Got to the Shady ramp with plenty of water and the engine won't start. Just get a tick tick tick tick. Didn't matter if I was on left, right or both batteries. Note that one battery is under 12 months old and the other is brand new on its first trip. Pulled out and swapped out one of my minn kota batteries to try and crank the engine. Same tick tick noise. I then had the minn kota battery loosened off and turned the isolator to the other battery and tried to crank the engine and got a spark on the loose terminal of the battery that was isolated.

At this stage I said Bugger this. Let's go home. Put all the batteries back to normal and started strapping down the boat. Thought I would try the engine one more time and it started as per normal. So we launched and it started again 1st time. Fished for a few hours and finally found a likely creek to do a bit of casting so deployed the minn kota on anchor and cut the engine. Heard that tick tick again as the engine turned off. Then it wouldn't start again. It's about 9pm half way up Tommycut

Decision made to can desires to hit coastal creeks on the high and just anchor at the mouth. Tried to deploy the anchor and it had Bugger all power going to it even with the engine on, isolator on both batteries and me giving it extra throttle

Started our trip back to the ramp to catch the high tide. 4 hours later navigating by previous tracks and torch light. Let's just say that I never want to retrieve at that place ever again at 3am. Scary poop

My question to the out board gurus, does this sound like the isolator switch is faulty?

Check your earth cables

Could be the isolator. If possible pull the isolator out and bridge the wires. See if this makes a difference in starting. If it fires it is most likely the isolator switch.
Check for corrosion on the wires as well because if they get salt on them they go green pretty badly inside the switch and they are usually in a non visible spot so you don't pay a lot of attention to them.

Lats wrote:Just get a tick tick tick tick

sounds like you have ticks
I hate electrics when they play up.
check the batt terminals as well.

As above, check every +ve and -ve connection. (The main ones). It doesn't take much to cause a hot joint and big volt drop. I hate 12 volts! At least 240 volts can push through a bit of corrosion!

PS; how much water is flowing? Can you still launch at all tides?

scottmac wrote:As above, check every +ve and -ve connection. (The main ones). It doesn't take much to cause a hot joint and big volt drop. I hate 12 volts! At least 240 volts can push through a bit of corrosion!

PS; how much water is flowing? Can you still launch at all tides?

Maybe 1-2 feet over the barrage. I launched and retrieved on the highs so not sure about any tides. Quite possible on the neaps but not sure

Had the same issue one morning in my brothers boat, luckily we tried to start it before we left home. Same symptoms and no battery made a difference. Turned out to be isolator. Good luck.

Keep a cheap voltmeter in the boat
First check voltage at battery terminals 1 at a time then check at starter motor should be roughly the same..isolator only switches 12V so you just need to follow the connections through to see where the crappy connection is.

Hey, just letting you know that last weekend I went out the north Vernon Island to be locked in and boat worked perfectly. Until we were going to leave, I tilted the engine and then it stopped working. I tried to start the engine and would either only get a tick noise or only just a light on the key bit. I pulled all the electrics and kept trying but nothing.
So my last resort was to remove the isolator and do a direct connection. So I removed the isolator and the boat worked first try! Having said that I've ordered a new isolator.

Could be a couple of things mate. I've never wired a anchor winch through a isolator though... They always should have their own circuit breaker and be hard wired. So if this is the case it kinda throws out the isolator out as being the main cause of the power issue. If two separate systems are playing up which should be the case there will be a common issue I would think..
I would simply start at the batteries and check everything to engine then to anchor winch. If the winch is isolated then it probabley is the cause of the dramas...
Give me a call if you get stuck

Till wrote:Check your earth cables

Hi Lats what Till says is a good place to start also. Had a similar problem awhile ago and all along the earth wire had corroded inside the lug. When you loaded it up it would fail to carry the current.

Try giving all the wires a good tug close to the lugs.

Bugger mate , Bloooody boats .

All sound advise from the guys , I thought I had a dud isolator . Found the problem was as
grumpy said . The connection looked fine but had corroded out inside the lug.

Should pull all main positive and earth feeds and check them all including engine cables If one has failed the others will be green and on its way as well I would think...
Good luck mate

Thanks for all the advice. Isolator looked brand new so probably not it. So then I polished all the connections. None had corrosion but there was a kind of blue insulation paint on them. I'd say what I did the other day when I changed the battery out, I changed the order of the connections and put one with too much paint on the bottom. Just enough to interrupt the flow of power.

Anyway all good now. Both batteries are 12.8 and 13V at rest and when on the motor go up to and over 14V

I might have ruined a trip because I'm not a guru on motors or power but I guess it's a lesson learned

Thanks again

Battery terminal "protector". I hate the poop. Always causes more problems than it solves but some workshops are in love with it. If you want to stop terminal corrosion use dielectric grease.