1996 Challenger won't start

[PieceOfWork2004]

A few months back I purchased my first boat, a '96 Challenger from a guy who was moving out of town. Unfortunately at the time I couldn't test it out due to all the lakes in the area being frozen but the price justified the risk. It was finally warm enough to mess with it this weekend and to my dismay I couldn't get the boat to turn over.

Long story short I plugged up the DESS key and it beeped twice which as best as I can tell means it was good to go. I pulled back on the choke and hit the starter which spun for about 10 seconds before it just died. After that I couldn't get it to spin back up again... it would just make a clicking sound every five seconds or so. I charged the battery overnight and tried it again but unfortunately even with the new battery it continued to do the same thing. I took it to the local automotive store to be tested and it passed but said it needed to be charged. They charged it overnight but it failed the test the next day so I jut bought another one.

I plugged the new battery up and again it spun for about 10 seconds and died. Every time I hit the starter after that it just went back to clicking every few seconds.

After a few hours of digging around online I found your great board and read many posts on how to troubleshoot the issue. I took off the PTO cover and tried spinning it by hand but could barely get it to budge. I then pulled the spark plugs out and it spun with little or no resistance. I hit the starter with the plugs out and the started cranked right over every time. When I hit the starter it shot a spray of what I can only imagine to be fuel and oil all over my friend. OOPS!! Is this normal?

After that I put the plugs back in and tried cranking the engine over. Once again in cranked for 10 seconds or so and then just died. As best as we can figure it had something to do with once the compression builds up the starter isn't strong enough to keep the engine spinning. I'm going to try and figure out out to pull the starter out tonight and take a look at it. Any suggestions? Is there any easy way to test it? I'd rather not buy another one if I don't have to just to find out there is some bigger issue going on.

I also had a question about the wiring on this boat. According to the guy I got it from it was winterized last year and they disconnected the battery as well as some of the snap plugs. I think I got everything hooked back up again but there are what appears to be two ground wires. It looks like one goes to the engine block and one goes to the MPEM box. Are both of these supposed to be hooked up to the negative connector on the battery? If not where do they go?


Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

-Eric

 

[voodoo]

The compression test is the starting point, then make sure the fuel system is flowing clean fuel without bubbles, adding a lawn mower filter in the engine bay makes this a breeze, read about the grey lines and take the time to insure you do not burn out the engine from lean running from having steel gas can trash in the carb filters or water in the seperator under the handlebars.

 

[Dr Honda]

It's easy... your battery is crap. Charging a bad battery doesn't make it better, and it doesn't make it "new."

Buy a new battery from a reputable source (I like Die-Hard) and you won't have the problem.

I hope that wasn't too blunt.


OK... the other issues.

The spray of oil/fuel on your friend. That can be common on an older boat. The center section of these engines are full of oil to lube the the rotary valve gears, and when the the seals get old... and the boat sits... oil will leak out into the crankcase. When you try to start it up... it will spray out. I recommend removing the plugs, put a rag over the open spark plug holes, and crank it to blow that junk out. Don't crank too long, or you will over heat the stater. Also... ground your spark plug leads so you don't over load the coil. (plug them on the little orange plug on the back of the engine)

As far as the wires... I don't disconnect anything when winterizing. Please post a pic so we can see what you are talking about.

Hope that helps. :cheers:

 

[PieceOfWork2004]

As I said I already replaced the battery with a new one and it still wouldn't crank over with the plugs in. I'm hoping to be able to pull the starter tonight, any advice on how to test it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dr Honda]

As I said I already replaced the battery with a new one and it still wouldn't crank over with the plugs in. I'm hoping to be able to pull the starter tonight, any advice on how to test it would be greatly appreciated.

Well... not really. You said you charged that battery, then refereed to it as "the new battery." You didn't say... "I bought a new battery."

I guess that was an oversight on my part, but it still seems like the battery isn't up to the task. But... if you pull the main power cables, and clean all the ends, and put it back together... it may work better.

As far as testing the starter... well... we know it spins, so mechanically it's going to be OK. I would just disassemble it, clean the com, and replace the brushes. That should take care of any issues it has.

Once you get it out, and apart... let us know what you find.

 

[voodoo]

He did say he had the auto store charge and the battery failed so he got a new one but still not cranking till the oil went out, I misread about it starting for 10 seconds when in fact it only cranked about 10 seconds - my followup--> open the starter motor and observe the brushes and replace as needed, when you remove the starter motor you are in the zone where the thick black cable goes onto the motor block and gets corroded causing similar trouble of intermittent no crank/slow crank, be sure to dip this connector into vaseline when you put the cable on. Hopefully you can get some burping sounds like it wants to fire up, I think a new set of plugs may be needed from the oil soaking, save these to burn off later in the season.

 

[PieceOfWork2004]

Thanks for everyones suggestions. I finally got a chance to get back in to the engine today and tried a few things but am still having the same issues. I cranked the engine with the plugs out to try and blow everything out as suggested. I let it go for 10-15 seconds and there was still what I assume was oil blowing out. I let it sit for little bit to cool the starter then cranked it again and it continued to blow stuff out. It seems to just be oil blowing out, is this normal? I tried lighting the rag on fire just for grins and it didn't burn like there was any gas in there... maybe I'm not get fuel?

I then put the plugs in and tried turning it over and it cranked for a few seconds then sputtered out like normal. I then opened up the fuse box and tried jumping the starter by shorting the relay and it did the same thing. I then tried running a jumper cable from the positive lead on the battery to the starter and the same thing happened.

I ran out of daylight before I could get the starter out. It looks to be a fairly aftermarket one, an Aquatorq I think. I'm going to pull it out this afternoon and take a look at it.

As for the two wires I believe to be grounds one is going to bolt that holds on the starter and the other is going to a terminal on the fuse box. Is this correct?

Thanks again for all your help/suggestions.