Help Needed!!!

[AaronW]

Hello everyone I’m new to this forum and to jet boating, with that said I’ve searched over all these forums to help me out and I think I’m at the point of asking for help now... I’ve got a 2005 AR230 and last week I went to the lake with it, got it started (the starboard engine was alittle sluggish to start but finally did, I took it out for a quick spin after launching it and killed it before making it to shore. Maybe 20 minutes later my wife and kids were getting in and pushed me out into the deep I then tried starting the engines to only hear it try to start then went to clicking, tried the only engine and same thing happened to it also! While on the lake I tested quite a bit found blown fuses and replaced them but still nothing working. I’ve brought it home now and have been for a week solid every day done all the easy things to eliminate something simple, fuses, battery, all three kill switches I ohmed them out and they are working, ohmed the ignition switches and they are working, pulled the starter relay and I have 12.7 V from battery and 12.1 V to the starter on it so it’s working, I just spent all day pulling the starter motor out and tested it on a battery and I spins very good, I’ve inspected front and back of the impeller for obstructions or the impeller hitting the housing and it all was good, but tried turning the impeller shaft and couldn’t get it to spin either way... I’m at wits end at this point

 

[AaronW]

I said only engine I meant to say other engine, so yea both engines aren’t working I guess doing the same thing...

 

[Julian]

Have you pulled the pumps to make sure they aren't actually binding in the sleeves. I'd take them off and try starting then with no impeller (don't run it long like that if it starts)

 

[AaronW]

I’m going to pull the spark plugs out tomorrow and try to rotate the shaft, will let you know what happens, and test for voltage at the starter since I have pulled it just to make sure it is getting to the starter....

 

[AaronW]

Awesome thank you Julian I’ll try that tomorrow as well

 

[zipper]

12.1 vdc is 50% of the voltage of 12.7 for a battery at rest. Seems a little low to me. Check all the cable connections pos and neg to make sure they are tight and clean, no corrosion. If the wear rings are binding, the load on the battery could be too much to crank. Is that 12.1v metered while cranking the starter or at rest? How new is the battery?

 

[Babin Farms]

You can have great voltage from a battery but hardly no CA or CCA. You need to check the cranking amps to verify the batteries are good even if the battery is not that old.

 

[Acard7]

Sounds like a battery issue if it’s just clicking.. Might as well change all the spark plugs while you’re at it. My port engine was sluggish to start, didn’t think it was actually going to start but it finally did. Changed all the spark plugs (again) and then fired right up. I also have 2 batteries so I didn’t have to worry about running them down as it kept turning over! Hopefully it’s just a loose battery connection or bad battery!

 

[AaronW]

Thanks everyone for y’alls information, it ended up being a bad connector from the starter relay to my main on/off switch... I’ve worked on this boat for months on and off to finally taking the cable protector and tape off to discover the wire in the eye connector was bad... hopefully this might help other people how it could work on the lake one minute then the wire in the connector lose enough wire strands inside of it to fail is beyond me but I tried everything to fix this boat but it wasn’t until I hooked up jumper cables from the battery to the engine ground and starter relay and it cranked that I started checking the wires and the wire going into the connectors themselves, because I keep tightening down and cleaning every nut and bolt that dealt with the starting system