Dead battery leads to disaster. Help Plaese!

[capp6112]

THE HARDWARE: 2000 CHALLENGER 1800 W/ MERC 210

THE SITUATION: So when i arrived at the dock today i found that i had mistakenly left my courtesy lights ON since last week and as you guessed the battery was dead. A fellow boater lent me his jumper box but it only cranked at a very low/slow pace and wouldnt start, the guy thought it was flooded. I dont see how but thats what he thought. anyway when the jumper box was attatched the auto bilge kicked in and emptied the two inches of water that accumulated over the week. I thanked the man and went to the store to get a new battery just to be sure.

THE DISASTER: Got a new battery that has a few less CCAs and MCAs than my old battery (Old batt. 800 CCAs and 1000 MCAs, New Batt 500 CCAs and 625 MCAs). Hooked up the new battery and the starter is turning but not cranking the engine. I popped off the plastic cover and see that the starter is turning but the sproket of the starter is sitting about 1/4 inch below the sproket of the engine! And nothing happened in the 30 min that i left the boat bc my buddy was there the entire time. Is it supposed to be like that bc i figured its teeth should be meeting the teeth of the engine sproket. And the bilge pump isnt working as well as the fuel gauge when the key is in the on position yet ALL the other dash components are in full working order.http://seadooforum.com/images/smilies/new/ack2.gif

So at this point im stuck. Does the lacking power of the new battery have to do with this?? Or is this whole thing FUBAR?? I know many out there are Merc haters but ANY help would be much appreciated guys. Thanks in advance.

 

[pincusa]

I don't know what sea doo specs for MCA for your boat, but I'd replace the battery that you had in there with the similar one.
Many times new batteries aren't charged fully. Put the battery on an overnight charger. If the starter isn't engaging, the bendix unit could be bad. But I'd guess a weak battery isn't spinning it fast enough to engage.

 

[WAJetboating]

Agreed...

Get a properly sized battery and make certain it is fully charged. You can't be sure of anything until your battery is right.

The bendix gear on the starter is supposed to retract like that. Otherwise, while the engine is running, it would be spinning the starter. When the starter spins up, the bendix engages the engine until the engine speed exceeds that of the starter, at which point the bendix backs off and disengages.

The engine manual calls for 670 marine cranking amps (MCA) and 520 cold cranking amps (CCA). I consider that an absolute bare minimum and would go substantially beyond. I'm away from my boat at the moment but believe my battery is more like your original one (in the 800 MCA range). Spend the money, it's not much more and eliminates the battery as the problem.

Report back when you have a proper, and fully charged, battery!

 

[capp6112]

New issue

Well a simple recharging of the old battery seemed to solve the problem. All except the bilge pump. At this point the bilge pump is not working at all. Thinking that i may have fried it i went and bought a new one and still nothing. Is it possible that i may have blown a fuse some where when i put the other battery in?? It was working perfectly fine right up until i put the new weaker battery in. Any thoughts or suggestions??

 

[WAJetboating]

Well a simple recharging of the old battery seemed to solve the problem.

We told ya so! <grin> Glad that's worked out.

All except the bilge pump. At this point the bilge pump is not working at all. Thinking that i may have fried it i went and bought a new one and still nothing. Is it possible that i may have blown a fuse some where when i put the other battery in?? It was working perfectly fine right up until i put the new weaker battery in. Any thoughts or suggestions??

There will be a fuse for the bilge pump. Check that.

Also, the bilge pump should be powered directly off the battery. Its power does not pass through the battery switch. Therefore, there might be a separate lead for the bilge pump that must be screwed onto the battery terminal. That's how the factory set it up on my boat. It would be easy to miss a separate, standalone, relatively small gauge wire that is supposed to connect to the battery. Look around the battery for any uncommitted wires with ring or spade connectors on them (that would fit on the battery). If none, then check the pump fuse.

 

[capp6112]

Yea the seperate wire for the bilge is connected to the negative terminal as it was prior. Is the fuse for the bilge in the front of the boat behind the steering column by the switchboard? In the back back by the engine or battery? It could be in the cooler for all i know, the more details the better.

 

[WAJetboating]

IIRC, my bilge pump fuse is back by the battery switch (haven't had to replace it, so not positive). There are a series of fuses back there that sort of "hang down" by wires near the battery switch. I believe one of them is the bilge pump.

Another possibility is that the pump has its own inline fuse holder in its power leads.

 

[capp6112]

Well I checked the fuses by the battery switch. There are three back there. I dont see anything labeled IIRC but the fuses themself have the number 2 on them. They seem to be in perfect working order (I dont know for sure but I assume that the fuse would appear different than normal if blown). I followed the wires from the bilge as they led toward the front of the boat. There was a grouping of these three end caps (not sure if they were fuses) branching off the wires. They were labeled SP 1, SP 2, SP 3. They are extremely difficult to get to and before i went tearing around i was curious if it was possible that a fuse may lay in there?? Im quite stumped and really want to avoid the marine mechanics.