electrical problem?

[chunk78]

I am a relatively new Grady owner and have run into my first issue. My boat is a 1990 tournament 190. The issue I am having is that after having the boat in the water sitting at anchor for an afternoon. When I start the motor up and attempt to trim the engine from the throttle the electrical power cuts off (digital gauges, GPS, stereo...all electrical) and the overheat horn goes off until the throttle is brought to idle. The engine continues to run fine and once I bring it back to idle and go again everything is fine...as long as I don't try to trim. I also have a three way battery switch, I start it on one of the two batteries and run it on both to charge them both. Today after retuning to the dock which is ~45 min ride with the switch on both I switched it to battery one to trim up and lock the motor battery one didn't have enough charge to move the engine. I then tried both same result. after about 20 min I tried battery two and the engine went up.

So my thoughts are a possible electrical short in the electric trim or a failing alternator or both.

I am new to boats so any insight would be helpful.

 

[FlemIslGator]

Sounds like your trim motor to me. Your engine tilt pivot point isn't gummed up is it (dried up grease causing the tilt motor to work too hard)? If the tilt works normal sometimes, it sounds like it is probably OK. I haven't pulled a tilt motor in many years, so don't remember what is involved. But, I believe I would pull it and have it checked.

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

I have had some kind of electrical issue since we bought our boat new in 2009. I first thought it was a bad battery, then replaced the batteries with group 27 AGMs. Battery 1 died within 4 months of owning it and West Marine replaced it. Battey 1 died yet again and in its demise the same exact voltage drop you experienced with the trim motor happened to me. My GPS, VHF and Alpine audio deck all have protective circuits which shut the units off when the voltage drops below a certain level. When I switch to battery 2 all is fine. I am going to replace battery 1, but I need to look in my schematic to see what draws off battery one all the time. I now turn my switch to off after a day on the water. I have a smart charger that is too smart for its own good and stopped charging battery 1. In my case maybe the power select switch is faulty? I don't know what to do here myself, so I am piggy backing on your thread and maybe kill two birds with 1 stone?

The trim motor draws a good amount of current (amps) and without reading the specs on it, I can not quote it. But if your battery is weak like mine was there are not enough reserve amps in the cells to give to the trim motor plus the other on board systems, that motor will try to suck every last one of them first.

 

[chunk78]

Thanks for the info. It is good that someone else is having the same issue. Why is battery one dying and two not. With the battery switch in both shouldn't the alternator be charging both simultaneously? I have also replaced battery 1 twice the season.

 

[1st grady]

From what I understand about two batteries, if you have them connected together, the weaker battery will draw down the strong battery until they have equal charge. I was informed not to charge both at the same time unless there is an isolator to prevent the discharge of the strong battery. Alternate days on bat 1 and bat 2.

Do you have common ground (black wire) connecting them as well? If not, the charging lead is only positive and it will not charge.

I believe you also need a special charger for AGM and Gell cells and you can not combine lead/acid and AGM.

 

[chunk78]

I am only using lead acid batteries.

I do have a common ground. I thought if you left them in the "ALL" position that the stronger battery would bleed into the less strong battery. That isn't happening battery one is dying and two is staying strong.

 

[1st grady]

I would think that the best configuration for two batteries is to have a second charging lead (if applicable) from the motor run to the second battery and keep your switch on 1 or 2, not both. It doesn't sound as if there is enough current getting to the second battery to charge it adequately. Are you running electronics while anchored? If so, you are drawing down the bat and the alternator is not able to build the charge back up. Also if this is the case you may want to use a deep cycle as battery 2 to run your house circuit and use dock power or a battery charger when you return. If you put the battery on a charger is it holding a charge over 13 volts after a couple of days? If so, the battery is not likely the problem and it sounds like you have a charging problem. (kind of like my wife)

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

I use 2 AGMS and they are wired as they came from the factory with the negative terminals connected then the positive going to the switch. In thinking about this post I did run my live well for an extended period of time while fishing and over night to keep our bait happy. I bought the AGMs becuase of their ability to take discharge and recharge rather well.

 

[ROBERTH]

Mine is in the shop now for same issue. Battery 1 kept going down to 9 volts, shut down all electronics. Switch over to both and all it good. Tech ordered a new Regulator/Rectifier as it is leading to that being the problem so far. Starboard motor was not sending a charge to the battery. Fingers crossed that is all that is wrong.

 

[gw204]

Look for the simple solutions first guys. Check/remove/clean/reinstall all of the wires connecting to your batteries, bus bars, gauges, etc. I had the charger in my old Sailfish quit charging my stbd. battery one time. Removed the leads, cleaned them off, reinstalled, good as new.

 

[chunk78]

Thanks for all of the advise. Turned out to be a bad common ground connection on the battery. Cleaned all battery terminal connections and every thing worked this weekend ran Saturday on battery one and Sunday on battery two. All was good. Thanks. Again

 

[ROBERTH]

Got mine back this weekend. Was the Regulator/Rectifier for sure. I am 99% sure that the issue was that when I got the boat and checked the batteries, I found all connections on both batteries were loose. That is like disconnecting the battery with the engine running or switching a battery switch to off while running. Will kill the Regulator/Rectifier for sure.

So,all is well now and showing charge conditions on both gauges putting out approx. 13.8 to 14.1 while running all day on Saturday. Put chargers on batteries when I returned and the Battery Tenders went straight to Storage status due to the motors able to keep up! All is well and happy now! I am at peace again! :wink: