Hey guys, Picked up a 96 escape 209. 96 Evinrude 200 ocean pro ran like a champ last season so I decided to redo water pump, seals, thermostats, lower unit oil, spark plugs, just as a precautionary upkeep. Batteries checked, Boat waxed and fresh bottom paint, slip ready. All set! asked the kid brother to strap the batteries in(they were already connected). He decided to disconnect one because he pulled the strap out from underneath it. But when reconnecting, he connected the negative ground to the positive terminal. I smell buringing electric from across the yard. Smoking boat. Immediately disconnected the one battery. Ground heated up and melted the casing at the terminal. The trim tab gauge completely burnt up on the dash. Its the first in the line of gauges. I pulled the cover off the engine and its also a mess. melted wires to the starter, and the ones going behind the plastic cover that I believe go to the relays for the Trim. I'm going to have a friend who is a marine mechanic look at it today. But I'm wondering if I'm going to need more of an electric guy. Any ideas of how bad this is? What could be affected? What is this going to cost me? Ughhhhh
ROOKIE MISTAKE...Now What?
- Thread starter DeepWater.inc
- Start date
Re: Big Problem? Escape 209
As far as bad goes it's a 8.5. You're looking at a new to you motor (it'll cost more to fix than it's worth), every electronic device that was turned on may be wiped, and I'd check all the wiring in the boat. It's not the first time something like that happened but normally a fuse blows saving some of the devices.
As far as bad goes it's a 8.5. You're looking at a new to you motor (it'll cost more to fix than it's worth), every electronic device that was turned on may be wiped, and I'd check all the wiring in the boat. It's not the first time something like that happened but normally a fuse blows saving some of the devices.
And Ive been frustrated trying to change my thru hulls....I think I shed a man tear for you...I hope its not as bad as it sounds...
Try replacing the burned wires first and see if any thing else need to be replaces. I found that a lot of times the weakest wires burn first and open not allowing big damage. But this experience is in other electrical system not on any boat that i have worked on.But what I do on my boat is color code all the battery wires, simple code, one red ring around all the number one battery cables, two red rings battery two, one blue battery three, all ground get , green tape rap rings,1 green on battery 1,two green on two, three on battery 3. Hope things work out for you.
For that era motor i don't believe you gonna have a very big problem, most likely you can save the motor(should be a fuse on the motor to protect it from this).
Wow, hope things work out with this. Current flows when switches are closed (on). This puzzles me here...most fuses in a DC circuit are wired to the positive (inbound current) side of the circuit.So the circuit is now reverse and essentially there are no fuses but if the electronics are off then in theory there is no current flow past the switch...switches are open ( off) or closeandd (on). When I installed my new LED lights the switch was positive and I fused it and the other side of the circuit was wired to the common fuse block area. Regardless though the switch being open will not allow current to flow one way or the other to complete the circuit. I am thinking aloud here and perhaps giving you some hope.
Am I missing something here? I think all the electronics that were off should be fine. The caveat though some radios and GPS systems have a memory that draws a small amount of current even when off, so those are likely damaged there. The battery shorting out makes sense because he created a short and a lot of current (amps) free flowed from one terminal to another via the boat's ground circuit which is not fused or circuit breaker protected. There is no switch per se, well there is and it is the battery selector switch which as on 1 or both? Anyway it was closed and the circuit completed there.
The motor likely needs a new power pack and some wires, maybe the alternator will need new diodes as well or just replaced all together. I had a 98 Johnson Ocean pro on my 192 and dont recall much electronic timing or what have you on that motor.
You may need to rewire the boat which while painful now could be a blessing in disguise over the long run. Really sorry this happened. Did you insure the boat?
Am I missing something here? I think all the electronics that were off should be fine. The caveat though some radios and GPS systems have a memory that draws a small amount of current even when off, so those are likely damaged there. The battery shorting out makes sense because he created a short and a lot of current (amps) free flowed from one terminal to another via the boat's ground circuit which is not fused or circuit breaker protected. There is no switch per se, well there is and it is the battery selector switch which as on 1 or both? Anyway it was closed and the circuit completed there.
The motor likely needs a new power pack and some wires, maybe the alternator will need new diodes as well or just replaced all together. I had a 98 Johnson Ocean pro on my 192 and dont recall much electronic timing or what have you on that motor.
You may need to rewire the boat which while painful now could be a blessing in disguise over the long run. Really sorry this happened. Did you insure the boat?
Fuses don't care which way the current is going so they will do what they can.
Try changing some wires and fuses but if you have to hire someone you'll be spending more than the motor's worth.
Try changing some wires and fuses but if you have to hire someone you'll be spending more than the motor's worth.
Grog,
While you are correct the current direction going through the fuse makes little difference, the fuse's position in a circuit can be critical. The reason fuses are on the plus side of device and ahead of the switch is for it to protect the device. So reversing the circuit the fuse is on now on the return side of the circuit so what ever device upstream of the fuse is no longer protected. The electrons at what ever given voltage and amperage must now flow through the device before reaching the fuse for the fuse to blow. The fuse may prevent a fire in its location but if on the back side of the device it will not protect the device from high current peaks that would other wise fry the fuse.
While you are correct the current direction going through the fuse makes little difference, the fuse's position in a circuit can be critical. The reason fuses are on the plus side of device and ahead of the switch is for it to protect the device. So reversing the circuit the fuse is on now on the return side of the circuit so what ever device upstream of the fuse is no longer protected. The electrons at what ever given voltage and amperage must now flow through the device before reaching the fuse for the fuse to blow. The fuse may prevent a fire in its location but if on the back side of the device it will not protect the device from high current peaks that would other wise fry the fuse.
It's on the "hot" side so you don't have a live wire sitting out there looking for a return path (short to ground, the device or a combination including you). Unless there was another current path, the device sees all the current it would take to blow the fuse. If you don't complete the circuit there will be potential (voltage) but no current.