No power to starter!

[Gill7858]

Hello all,
I have a 2002 saltwater series ox66 250 hp 2 stroke. With lanyard in place, I turn the key and the engine makes one loud click and then my gauges dim. I've tested my batteries(all good) I've cleaned the terminals and made sure that they were tight. I attempted to jump the starter with a screw driver and no power there. I checked the main fuses in the engine and they were all good.
The only thing I did which I thought could be the problem is, I attempted to start the engine WITHOUT the lanyard in place and it made the same click as if it was in. Could it be the dead man switch and if so how can I test it?

Any solutions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[bumperfood]

Sounds like you still have a bad connection, especially if your batteries are good. Make sure all the connections are clean and bright, including the grounds. Sometimes the cables themselves get corroded internally. Look where the cable meets the copper connector, if you see a lot of green corrosion, you may want to shorten the cable and reattach a new connector; providing of course you have enough cable. You might also try using a set of jumper cables and see if there is a difference.

[Gill7858]

I tried that and still no change. What next?

What do I do with the jumpers? From battery straight to pos/neg on starter?

[99yam40]

Yes, by pass the cables on your boat, or one at a time to help narrow it down to which one is the problem.
A voltage drop measurement with a load will also tell where the problem is

[Gill7858]

Ok, I'm going to try it and let you know.

[Gill7858]

Ok sO I got a meter and there is 12v of power going to the starter, however when I turn the key still just a click and gauges dim. Checked main engine fuses and they are good to go. I'm stumped.

Question, is there a breaker or fail safe of some sort that can be tripped that may need to be reset? For example if the prop is trimmed out of the water while in motion and it over-revs, will there be a fail safe or breaker that may trip??

[jb123]

if you have a solid 12 to starter look again at the ground... or starter is bad

[99yam40]

Measure voltage while you turn the key.
at the starter, at the starter relay both large terminals, and at the battery terminals themselves

[Gill7858]

There's a voltage drop at the battery. Goes down to about 4v.
At starter there is no power until I try to crank it.

[danteknik]

place a battery next to the motor and use jumper cables direct from battery to the stater to check if starter is working. if sounds to me like the stater is bad and shorting your system. or you battery lost its peak power

[99yam40]

Sounds like a bad battery to me

[jb123]

have you turned flywheel by hand/sure its not seized ?

[Gill7858]

No I haven't. What would cause the flywheel to seize? The engine only has 361 hrs.

[ohsoslow]

I'd be checking the motor will turn over by hand as mentioned, and then swapping battery (Chuck your car battery in or similar to test) Easy enough to do!

[Gill7858]

Should the flywheel turn easily or do I need to put some force on it to get it to move?