Battery hooked up in reverse

SPYKEKPT

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I did a stupid thing. I tried to hook my batterys up by memory and did it wrong. I had one battery hooked up in reverse. I redid them the right way but now no power. The batterys are good. I think I blew the breaker but when I try pushing the button it wont go in. Did it burn it up? Has anyone ever done this. How can I check to see if its just the circuit breaker? Its a 88 204C overnighter. Any help would be great. Thanks
 

jehines3

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After hooking them up what did you do? Do you have a battery switch? How did you know you hooked them up backwards (what made a loud noise)
 

SPYKEKPT

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I do have a switch. After hooking the batterys up I turned the switch to the 1st battery and then tried to put up my engine and there was no power. So not thinking there was anything wrong I tried the other battery and still no power. There was no noise that I know of. I check my diagram and I had the battery turned the wrong way. I tried pushing the red button but it did nothing. Any ideas?
 

plymouthgrady

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REVERSE BATT.

Did you reverse the batteries as put 1 on 2 and 2 on 1, or did you reverse the polarity and touch a positive to a negative? If you did the latter, you've blown some fuses. All you need to do is touch the post and the damage is done...trust me.
 

SPYKEKPT

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The negitive was hooked up to the positive. How do those circuit breakers work? Is it like in your house where you could reset it or do they just blow out and need to be replaced.
 

plymouthgrady

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BATTERY

It was some years ago but I'm almost certain i blew an in-line barrel fuse under the cowling.
 

SPYKEKPT

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On your engine? I dont have power anywhere and Im not sure how to check it to see if its getting power past the circuit breaker.
 

plymouthgrady

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battery

The blown fuse was on the engine but you can check for power w/ a continuity tester.
 

BobP

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Not good.

A circuit breaker will not reset if it still sees a fault conditon, or until it cools off from an event where it tripped.

If you paralleled two batteries under reverse polarity even momentarily, I bet the electrolyte made like boiling water in the pot !

If you connected the battery to the motor reverse polarity, dont know if it sustained damage to the electronics like powerpacks, rectifiers, regulators, computers.

Replace the selector switch if it was used to parrallel two batteries one reverse polarity. Destroy the old one.
 

SPYKEKPT

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The circuit breaker would have been cooled off. I wasnt able to see if I hooked it up wrong until the next day when I could get my diagram. Where I get no power anywhere Im hopeing it didnt make it to the motor. I will get a tester and try that.
 

BobP

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You already wrote you connected the motor to the battery that was later found reverse polarity, so whatever damage to motor is done, is done.

With respect to breaker, you mean the ship's power breaker at the stern ?
I don't recall even seeing breakers in motors, only fuses.

If you think the ship's power breaker is defective, here's a cheap but effective way to figure it out.

With all power off, take a few strands from multistrand wiring and connect across the breaker, in effect jumpering it out. If all is clear when you energize it, power will be restored, if the jumper burns out, then you have a short circuit downstream reflecting permanent damage in some component (meaning the breaker is good).
A few strands ought to be good for a 20A home made fuse.

Be carefull doing what I suggest if you choose to, I presume you know how to do it w/o lighting yourself up into a roman candle. July 4th has passed !
Even OJ's leagal team can never come after me to place blame!

Good luck.
 

SPYKEKPT

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I will try that thanks. It makes me ill to think of the damage that might be done.
 

BobP

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Crap happens, I've done worse.

Depends how you look at it.

You are actually fortunate - the battery can explode in such incidents, result in eye sight loss, serious burns. Compared to that, some new motor parts are meaningless.
 

Capt Bill

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I don't think that you have serious damage to anything. You connected the battery backwards, but you said you pushed the button the tilt the engine up. I think you simply blew a fuse. You didn't turn on the ignition switch to the engine, did you? I think engine electronics are ok then. Find the blown fuse, and replace. If it's a 30 or 50A fuse, it would have blown in about 1 second or so. Not enought to toast the battery disconnect switch IMO, as that should sustain 500 amps for several seconds. But you can find that out after you replace fuse(s). Let us know?
 

SPYKEKPT

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Let hope your right. I never did turn the ignition. Thanks maybe I can sleep tonight. I dont think I will be able to get to it until tomorrow but I will let you guys know. Thanks for all your help.
 

Grog

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If you switched both batteries on and had one reversed, you unleashed a lot of power to the battery wires and switches. I'd remove the covers and inspect at the very least.


If nothing was on, hopefully you didn't damage the engine. The tilt motor will not care which way you wire the battery up, power is reversed when you lower the motor.

If the motor is an '88, it may not have too much in the way of electronics. Get the wiring in order, check the fuses and see what happens.
 

uncljohn

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All I know is my buddy did that in an old Bronco and it fried ALL of his electrical components such that the car was junk. It needed every electrical component in the engine rewired.
 

BobP

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Of course I hope for the best.

If the battery selector switch was placed in Both position with reverse polarity, even if on the way from 1 to 2 position, , it seen a full blown short curcuit, enough to weld metal. If it did happen, then being that it survived and didn't blow off and take a finger or two with it, it is still good for nothing. This cat only has one live to survive such an event, not another.

Once the motor is connected to the battery reverse polarity, it doesn't need "ignition on" to be affected.
Ignition on may make it worse. I agree crank motor and T&T may be OK, not anything electronic or otherwise solid state. I'm particularly concerned with charger/regulator that always is connected to battery even with key off. On older motors I think powerpacks and coils get power from stator coils when flyweel spinning, so they are self powered components. I hope.

After the motor fuse is replaced, and if the motor cranks buy doesn't fire, the dealer when told what happend. will know exactly what the repair bill will cost. If the motor cranks and fires, buy doesn't generate charge voltage, he will also know what repair bill will be.
 

SPYKEKPT

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Its a 2000 Yamaha OX66. I have someone who will help me on wed night. I will keep you all updated.