first thought?

[devovino]

Battery in for the 1st time this season, turn key, and click, nothing afterwards? No accessory power/light on now no nada..... GO!

[covertcombatant]

Did you Check the voltage on the battery?

[Zim]

Check to see if boats in neutral
Check lanyard
Check main fuse breaker
Battery is dead
Check battery connections if batteries good

In that order.

[UKandH]

As above.

It sounds like a loose or bad connection....or an open circuit battery. When you introduce a load to the system, the point of high resistance (your problem area) will go open circuit and fail.
As said, check battery first, with all things electrical start with the absolute basics, then work outwards.
Battery is at a good voltage and when started is engaged the voltage should remain at 10V or above, may dip down to 9V for a very short period.
Next check the voltage on the terminal that fixes to the battery opst to check its at the same as the battery, it could be a bad connection there.
Next one is to check it at the engine, check the voltage at the starter solenoid and the earth lead on the block.
The power is usually then tapped off from the solenoid to the boats main electrical system (sometimes via a trip) check this hasnt gone and tripped or is Open Circuit.
Check the earth from the engine to the main electrical system (same as the positive)
Next is the fuse block, on my Supra the main connection is mounted on the fuse block and is prone to failure, so check its good.
Is there a trip in the system, mine has an ignition power trip by the ignition switch...has it tripped open?
Obviously then check the fuses are ok.

I almost guarantee it will be one of the above :)

[devovino]

So luckily the problem lied in one of these things: I double checked that the throttle was in Neutral ( back in forth F/R a hand full of times) traced the cable to the transmission double checking it was in neutral, double checking the throttle at the Carb. Cleaning the battery terminals and connections with sandpaper. Re-installed the battery and had power again and all gauges were back to life! Turned the ol beast over, and sluggish from sitting all winter long, but was eventually able to fire up the old girl, its a beautiful thing! Hope next posts are about finally getting around to Rolling/Tipping some new color on it, adding a tower, and most importantly paddling into some waves! Thanks for the advice ya'll! Bring on summer~!

[UKandH]

Glad you got it sorted :)

[Zim]

So luckily the problem lied in one of these things: I double checked that the throttle was in Neutral ( back in forth F/R a hand full of times) traced the cable to the transmission double checking it was in neutral, double checking the throttle at the Carb. Cleaning the battery terminals and connections with sandpaper. Re-installed the battery and had power again and all gauges were back to life! Turned the ol beast over, and sluggish from sitting all winter long, but was eventually able to fire up the old girl, its a beautiful thing! Hope next posts are about finally getting around to Rolling/Tipping some new color on it, adding a tower, and most importantly paddling into some waves! Thanks for the advice ya'll! Bring on summer~!

Did you not pull the battery before winter? Should pull it out and stick it on a trickle charger in a warm/dry area so it lasts longer than a year or two.

[devovino]

Did you not pull the battery before winter? Should pull it out and stick it on a trickle charger in a warm/dry area so it lasts longer than a year or two.

Yeah I did a full winterization, and pulled the battery, charging it occasionally throughout the winter. Its just the motor is a beast, takes a little "motivation" after hibernating all winter. Having said this, hope to get it out on the water this weekend for a shake-down cruise, maybe some surfing! Cheers

[devovino]

So stepping back to this, was on the water today, all was ok for the most part. I am noticing however really slow cranking from the dock, Then got underway after running for about 20 minutes of slow idle. We just drifted for a half an hour with the radio going. Then I went to fire up the motor and it once again had really really slow cranking ( like the battery was dying) tried a few times it would not turn over, just slow cranking. The voltage meter was showing 12+ amps....

I decided to take off the observer seat and see what I could see, I noticed the negative terminal connector where it connects to the battery looked like it had gotten really hot, the metal of the connector looked "discolored", and extremely hot to the touch. Then as I would crank it, I could visually see the negative connector get red at one point at the battery connection. It did this a few time, after cranking it for a few seconds it got red in one little spot. It eventually turned over, we boated for another hour and the battery cables cooled down to the touch? I never turned it off for the hour/ hour 1/2 and it was fine? This is new to me, some sort of resistance somewhere?

[Jetlink]

How old is this boat? I may have missed it if it was said above.

[UKandH]

That could be a myriad of things, but again, check the battery terminal. Remove the terminals and clean the inside of the posts mating half, clean the posts themselves.
Check the engine earth is good.

Next check all the positive terminals on the starter relay and starter.

If all of those are ok then i would start looking to replace the starter motor itself.

[devovino]

That could be a myriad of things, but again, check the battery terminal. Remove the terminals and clean the inside of the posts mating half, clean the posts themselves.
Check the engine earth is good.

Next check all the positive terminals on the starter relay and starter.

If all of those are ok then i would start looking to replace the starter motor itself.

My boat is a 87 Saltare, I did look at all the connections they "seemed" to look okay, I cleaned them up as best I could. I went ahead and ordered a new starter off of Amazon per this thread: https://forum.supraboats.com/showthread.php?15066-PCM-454-starter-Saltare/page3&highlight=saltare
On page three, the recommendation per Wotan2525 I ordered this starter: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0094JJK7W/...332200_TE_item

Hopefully this fixes the problem....... if not I get a new starter and so begins the process of elimination!

[Zim]

Could be corrosion in the cable itself. Resistance means heat. If you're having heat isolated to one specific area, then check all connection points. Check the battery, check the connection at the battery, check the connection at the starter, or it could even be a starter going bad that id drawing too much current causing excessive heat. If you're getting red glowing heat, you have a problem. That's not normal.

[Jetlink]

I would replace your battery cables while you are at it. I recently replaced mine and it's like I have a new starter on there now.

[devovino]

I would replace your battery cables while you are at it. I recently replaced mine and it's like I have a new starter on there now.

I had thought about replacing the cables, but I might cut back the cable at the terminal/connector to replace the connectors, and check the inside of the cable to see if there is corrosion? I know there could be corrosion anywhere along the cable, but its a start, I heard corrosion mostly occurs at the exposed ends like the connectors at the battery or solenoid, or starter.

[2500HD]

One other simple check for corrosion in a battery cable is if you take the cable and bend it. If you hear any cracking sound it has corrosion. Not fool proof but a good check. Also cut back 2 inches of cable, if it is still green or white you might as well replace it.

[devovino]

One other simple check for corrosion in a battery cable is if you take the cable and bend it. If you hear any cracking sound it has corrosion. Not fool proof but a good check. Also cut back 2 inches of cable, if it is still green or white you might as well replace it.

I will double check everything, and check the cables. Well new starter arrived today, hope it does the trick!15903

[Salty87]

Don't skimp on the cables. You dropped however much on a starter. Give it the juice it needs. 30 yr old cables are tired.

[devovino]

Don't skimp on the cables. You dropped however much on a starter. Give it the juice it needs. 30 yr old cables are tired.

This may be true, or the PO may have done this... they look to be in good shape?

Either way, removed the old starter heavy beast new one was 1/3 the weight. The connections at the starter end look good but I cleaned up any superficial rust w/ 100grit,replaced the new starter. battery was placed on my charger and it read full charge as soon as it was connected. Re-cleaned the batter terminals more thoroughly and checked the connections. Hooked the boat to the hose in the driveway and fired it up, man is that sweet! All the difference in the world, fires up on the first bump, and continued to do so another half a dozen times.... should have done this a season ago!

Additionally, further inspection showed 3 wires ( I replaced them last season and now recall a few were a little short) were rubbing on the driver side exhaust manifold and had some burns on them, actually through the rubber, and were cracked and brittle..... that's nice. I replaced them with 3 old ones that I saved just in case. I think new wires are in order, again...

On to bigger and better things!