3 replies to this topic

[AlabamaScott]

Alright, after spending all afternoon, charging batteries and cranking and cranking the motor, i still cant get it to turn over with the plugs in... only this time i notice i difference between the two engines... i cant explain it, so i plan on gettting out my video camera and recording me trying to get the engine started... so for anyone who is intrested email me at "Harle008@bama.ua.edu " and ill email you this video, so you can fully understand whats going on and possibly, hopefully, offer me some really great suggestions... thanks again guys... scott

[Kevin Leclair]

Upload the video here so we can get a clearer idea of what is going on.

[tiggerman]

Alright, after spending all afternoon, charging batteries and cranking and cranking the motor, i still cant get it to turn over with the plugs in... only this time i notice i difference between the two engines... i cant explain it, so i plan on gettting out my video camera and recording me trying to get the engine started... so for anyone who is intrested email me at "Harle008@bama.ua.edu " and ill email you this video, so you can fully understand whats going on and possibly, hopefully, offer me some really great suggestions... thanks again guys... scott

Is the battery new or are you recharging a battery that possibly has sulfated, dead cells? I think 1996 had twin batteries with a jumper between grounds. A weak battery will spin it over all day, but when you add plugs and create compression, it may have trouble. Excess oil only raises compression, making it more difficult.

[Saturday Morning]

LM share my experience maybe it can be helpfully a tiny bit. - If you don't want to read the whole thing the battery cables were crossed between the two engines and the center 'boost' solinoid in the electircal box was not working to compensate for the mis-wired leads.

'95 speedster with twin 657x Rotax and (2) independent batteries. Boat is equipped with a boost switch on the instrument cluster to bridge the two batteries.

Bought the boat needing batteries. Replaced both batteries only to find engines wouldn't crank with plugs in regardless of if the switch was on boost or no boost position. Engines will crank with plugs out and no compression. First thought was the new batteries were weak/not fully charged.

1. Removed & charged the batteries and reinstalled them in the boat. No change.
2. Tried a different set of brand new batteries. No change.
3. Removed both starters cleaned brushes & armatures. Noticed that one starter's brushes were nearly gone & ordered new starter to have on hand. Next I took the old starters up to AutoZone for testing. Starters checked out ok. Reinstalled them in the boat. No change.
4. Repeated step 1. No change.
5. Frustrated, I pulled the cover off the electrical box and traced the battery cables back to their individual solenoids. Discovered that they were crossed. I.e. right engine pos and left eng. Neg on one battery and vice-versa on the other.

With only a small #10 or #12 ground wire going between the two engine blocks not enough current was allowed to flow between the two to crank over the engines with the plugs in. The no load amp draw on each starter is in the neighborhood of 20 amps which is can easily be accommodated by that little #10 or 12 ground wire going between the engines. With the plugs in however, the fully load current is more like 160 or more amps which that little wire can’t handle and probably would’ve burnt up had I kept on it.

Normally the boost switch in the instrument cluster would compensate for this by bridging the batteries together, but in my case I removed the center boost solenoid from the electrical box and opened it up only to find a serious case of the cruds inside. All contacts were corroded rendering it useless..

So I labeled each battery cable correctly, and connected them back up and wa-la both engines cranked over no problem even with the plugs in.

Next I cleaned contacts inside of boost solenoid up real nice and reinstalled it back on the boat. – I went ahead and ordered a new one of those two just to have on hand.

Good luck!