starter slave solenoid and ignition switch

prgrod01

Hello from British Columbia, Canada. I have recently purchased a 2001 242 for pleasure cruising and salmon fishing on Vancouver island and have found this forum very useful to date and wanted to contribute a recent problem/solution.

About a month ago I got the feared starter "click" instead of an engine start. It started every 2nd or 3rd time, and would eventually start. After a quick look at the manual and a search on the Rinker forum I replaced a starter slave solenoid. Everything was great for about a month and then as we loaded the boat up with the family, the dreaded click was back, same issue... rather surprised the slave solenoid failed twice in a month?

Long story short, it turned it was a faulty ignition switch that was the main culprit all along. Didn't find the issue until I tried again, and again to start the engine and and got a rapid click,click,click noise and when I measured the voltage on the starter slave solenoid I found a low 5V. So that led to further troubleshooting and found the switch was failing and causing a high resistance and robbing the voltage for the solenoid. 

The starting circuit is fairly straight forward to troubleshoot, but I wouldn't (and didn't) suspect the ignition switch and the initial problem came around to bite me twice... so hopefully this helps someone in the future.

Cheers.

Liberty44140

Thanks for posting this, always good to have these experiences out there. 

NavyCTRC

Wonder if that could be my problem?  I turn the key and get nothing, no click or anything.  Thought it was a solenoid problem, so I swapped out the entire starter unit with a good one and it did the same thing.  No crank, no click, nothing.  Verified I have 12.7v at the starter, but I tried the combine setting on the battery switches anyway, still nothing.  I also swapped out the relays with a known good one, still nothing.  About the only thing left in that circuit is the switch itself...I think.

rasbury

Can you jump the switch somehow?