Boat starting issue.

[silverspoon]

Had to get towed in yesterday. Fun on the water.

Boats docked at S. end of Sodus bay. Got to the boat and it fired right up. Let the boat warm up, then ran out to the point. Anchored at the sand bar and messed around with the gas actuated trim tabs to adjust for a list.

Tried to start it up but all I got was one turn then nothing but clicks.

I have an '85 merc 170 with electronic egnition. Voltage regulator went bad 2 years ago, so I upgraded to a 1 wire alternator.

Voltage read just over 12 at the battery that I purchased last year.

Where would I start to diagnose the problem.

Thanks,

Mo

[W.W.IV.]

It sounds like a dead bat. or a starter soloniod. clean your bat. connections and see if that works if not try charging the bat. or hook to an other. If that doesn't work check starter connections and if you have to try buy passing the starter solinoid or just replace it if its replaceable. Hope this helps.

[silverspoon]

Cable ends are only a year old. I also changed out the solinoid when I upgraded to an alternator 2 years ago.

have it on a solar trickle charger now. I'm just hoping it is a low battery situation caused by a weak alternator. That would be the easiest fix.

Thanks for the advise.

[rocky]

Sounds like a bad battery. I had a similar problem last year. My battery was one year old and i only fish weekends mostly providing good weather so there really was not a lot of use on the battery. Started my boat at the dock and all seemed fine, shut off the main engine and switched over to my kicker. When it was time to head in turned the key to start the main engine and just a bunch of clicks. Lucky for me the kicker motor got me back to the dock. I looked all over my boat for some kind of short and could not find a thing, put the battery back on charge and it charged right back up. I headed out on the lake and the same exact thing happened again. I could not believe that my battery could be bad after just one year use but i decided to head down to the local auto parts store to have it tested and sure enough the battery had a bad cell. New battery and problem fixed, of course now i always carry a spare battery just in case. Only takes a couple of minutes to pull a battery and have it tested, i would start there before going crazy looking for something that may not be broken.

[jimski2]

Sometimes an automotive battery is used in boat. It will start the boat, but after a little pounding on the lake, the cells fail. A marine battery has stronger construction to handle the pounding in a boat. Never use your car battery in a boat, both your boat and car will not start then.

[silverspoon]

Turns out it was the alternator. Took a jump start and engine fired right up. Volt meter only read 11.2 at the bolt. while removing the alternator, the bolt came right out. nut had been rattling around in the there for 2 days. I'm just hoping the battery which is a marine battery isn't toast.

[UpGrady]

Keep an eye on this, I have a pair of 170's and just went thru the very same exercise over the past 2 years... random non-start with only clicks. Turns out it was just the starters had gone bad and were likely sticking, generally a few taps with a hammer and they would fire... check your ground wires for corrosion at the starters as well. By jum starting and adding more juice to the system, you may have just been able to heat the starter coil up enough to get it to move.

[tree top flyer]

If you have a 3.7 merc ( 160,170,190) west marine up in iron has a starter on clearance 4 a hundred bucks. They had 2 last week now one is in my boat. You will not find these starters anywhere on line under a 180.

[HPORT]

Are you going out with just one battery on board? May want to conceder dual batteries, one for starting and one for electronics, etc... that will also be a back-up to the main.