battery selector switch

rasbury

I have a post working in the engine section about a starting issue and I'm also trying to understand what I ran into today replacing a battery....I was trying to confirm which battery was number one and two...brief look in the engine compartment I'd Assume the first battery would be one: when I looked at the battery cable going up, seem the wire went to the other side of the selector on the back making me now think number 2. SO, I was replacing my starting battery so thought I would confirm . I really could not! First, the engine turns on with either battery so then I thought, will try to turn a cabin light on to confirm- would not work on 1 or 2, but only when I had it on both, with only one battery installed, what's up with that?

rasbury

Looks like its wired ok, just question if its working right, seemed odd

raybo3

Quick question for you. Was your battery charger still on????? Make sure you shut down the charger while troubleshooting batteries...........

rasbury

probably was, shore was plugged in but I think I had everything turned off...

raybo3

I know I had a bad battery on my boat a couple of months ago and had a hard time figuring witch one it was because the charger was still on. My bad.....lol

rasbury

well, this switch still seems to be an issue.....I thought I had left something on and killed my new battery....nothing consistent, but I can put it on 1 and everything is dead....put it on two and dead, put it on both and have plenty of power....put it back on 1 and everything is good......what the heck is going on with this switch? Or a ground problem? Is there any servicing to be done? I already have checked the connections on the back side of the switch...do they typically go bad in this manner?

frenchship

Very seldom a battery switch would go wrong,most likely bad ground or bad batteries connections 

rasbury

that's what I thought...both batteries are new and all the connections between the switch battery are good so will see what the ground is, I'm sure a common ground to the motor....thx

rasbury

well, still working on this. I had previously pulled the panel open and checked the connections, perfect. The battery connector/connections:perfect. This weekend, while putting a cooling house to the foot, I pulled the ground wires on the back side of the motor (4) and cleaned connections that looked fine and put some anti corrosion stuff on it and put it back together. I.ve had this issue day one, I have rebuilt the starter as it crapped out, I replaced the starter slave solenoid being a suspect and it seemed to test bad. And which ever battery the selector is on and it's not working, nothing works not just the ignition. Not an electrical person but this sure sounds odd.

I looked on line, not much info on my Guest brand switch but was surprised with the wiring as I expected to see a couple of + terminals (which the diagram I found showed) and the an acc. lead for the helm, another wire to the starter which after thought makes sense and THEN wires to the alternator??? Where do the battery ground wires go to? Hard to understand the "switch" and how to check it, does there not have to be a ground in the switch there somewhere to turn off and on???

Cableguy Greg

The switch ONLY switches the positive wires. The negative (ground) wires should be connected together at some point and NOT to the switch. Some boats have a terminal block for the negatives and some don't. Keep in mind that the diagram that you pulled up is for a basic 2 battery system. You should have a battery charger and an isolator on your setup which complicates things.
Just because you cleaned the ends of the wires doesn't mean that they are still good. The wires can corrode inside the jacket where it is out of site. Try and email the person who took over for Randy Rinker and see if you can get the wiring diagram of your model boat. It will help out a ton. I have referenced mine multiple times in the short amount of time that I have owned my 280.

frenchship

 There is no ground connections on the switch only positive connections. The ground connections from the batteries go to the engines blocks.
example:

Cableguy Greg

Thanks frenchship!! That is a perfect example as to how it should be wired.

rasbury

thanks friendship, that is a little more detailed than what I found...I was a bit puzzled by the illustration that it shows two different alternator(s) connections? I had my alternator off but don't recall any other wires other than the plug but will look at that this am.  There is a "terminal block" on the transom but I don't see any wires I would think handle the power of the ignition. I suppose the ignition may go through such a block, will work on getting that diagram. I will give that another look as those connections did not look real swift at a glance. I thought I saw that my battery grounds wires headed up towards the switch and that deserves another look to see where these go. My little 20' Tahoe bow rider sure was a lot easier to keep up with, never had the first problem like this...I'll get it but dang!  How would you check the cables without destroying them, some sort of resistance test? Who is the new contact for RinkerI sure have a lot of questions! I am going to put it in the water to test the newly rebuilt water pump and thought if the battery switch would not work I could just by pass it but I'm thinking that not a good plan  to try.

frenchship

Maybe that could help.

MarkB

Great diagram Frenchship

rasbury

that's a much better one than in the merc manual...thx! But I have to admit, I've made error. I have such limited time with the boat (pesky work, christmas, kids) and I'm trying to solve several issue I find myself not trusting what I've done and not taking the time to trouble shoot the problems I have, just charge at them like a bull.  First, I think my battery, switching and everything is fine.  I made the assumption that since I was experiencing the sort of problems I had before, I still had them when I did not. I did replace the starter slave solenoid previously and it did test bad and probably did solve that issue. What I did not think about on my new starter battery is I was having starter issues and probably just wore the dang thing down.  I put the boat in the water on Saturday to test the water pump (different thread) and I started it on battery number two. I drove around and stayed close to the dock and everything seemed to be good. Just for giggles, I tried battery one and it started fine. I think the bad starter just wore it down and it never had a chance to charge back up so the lesson learned, start from the beginning and work through the same trouble shooting that lead me to replace the solenoid to start with! I but a meter on the battery and it was only 9 1/2 volts so I'd guess not enough power to turn the lights on! 

rasbury

who is that new contact at Rinker? I would like to get a full boat diagram if they will give it up, also, hoping they can give me the serial number for my motor- there is a sticker on the intake cover but you can't read it and I'm not crawling back down to the rear end of that motor again until I have to!

TikiHut2

My serial number decals had never been put on the cowling either. Luckily I found my engine serial number stickers still inside my boat manual book. Try there 1st. Otherwise just stick a cell phone camera under the side by the starter and take a few pics until you find it.

Glad you solved your issue. Sometimes we just over-think a small problem when we're "convinced" that we know what it is. I love a simple fix.