Suck Up A Rock and Not Turning Over After? Check your Starter Relay!

[Guitarjesus]

This happened to me at Silverwood Lake here in SoCal. Cleaned up everything, took dings out of impeller vanes. Slapped everything back together and it wouldn't even attempt to turn over.

Checked all the fuses, battery voltage, fuse board relays, all checked out. Chased voltage to the starter relay, but because it was late at night and my wife was in bed, I had nobody to turn the key to see if voltage to the starter was going through.

So I took this thing out.



Try measuring resistance across the two copper colored contacts, usually starter relays measure between 65-120 ohms for the low level 12v coming in. Mine read 4.7ohms, which is low enough resistance to have continuity across the circuit still.

Which lead me to try to jump across the contacts...

I have an old 1997 Ford F-350 and the starter relay had the same problem. Until the part came from Amazon, I ran a screwdriver across the contacts with the key set to run.

I don't recommend this long term, this can melt contacts, if you don't use a tool that's insulated, it'll shock the hell out of you (not really enough voltage to push the amps through you to die most likely), and can cause a whole host of potential other electrical gremlins in whatever vehicle you do it to (can also chew up a flywheel if left engaged too long), but good enough to diagnose an issue!

Now that I know, I can buy a cheapie on Amazon while waiting for the OEM part (another "ask me how I know" why long term aftermarket parts like this are bad) to get me back on the water.

Special thanks to my amazing wife for turning the key for me while I was reaching to do this.

 

[Cambo]

Did you try to start the motor while the rock was in the jet pump?

 

[Guitarjesus]

Did you try to start the motor while the rock was in the jet pump?

Unfortunately. I got one rock out, and couldn't feel the other one lodged up in there. Went to start it, fried the relay. Now I know.

 

[Cambo]

Unfortunately. I got one rock out, and couldn't feel the other one lodged up in there. Went to start it, fried the relay. Now I know.

Great info so any item that puts to much load on the starter could cause this failure you seem to have good electrical knowledge. Did it take long to dig into the electrical system and trace this out?

 

[Guitarjesus]

Great info so any item that puts to much load on the starter could cause this failure you seem to have good electrical knowledge. Did it take long to dig into the electrical system and trace this out?

Only because I'm a bartender and my work hours are all over the plage and my kids are done with school so I didn't have hours to dedicate to it.

It should have been my first point of inspection as it's the first spot in line with the battery cable. The battery died on me a few weeks ago, and after reading these forums, it appears these ECM's are very sensitive to voltage level to even want to start the engine, so since the battery was low again (from being stuck on the lake for 2 hours, and letting kids charge their phones to let their parents know they'd be home late), I replaced it.

Then I went straight to the fuses, all checked out, then the starter relay was my next line of attack, should have been my first since the damned thing didn't turn over at all. If it turned over but didn't start, then I should have started at the fuse box.

That's the problem having vehicles under warranty, you get rusty working on things, lol.

 

[FLJetBoater]

Info for some others who may find this thread….

Unknowingly sucked up a rope last weekend…engine stalled out and I attempted to restart a few times before I figured out what happened. Limped back on one engine because it was too tight in there to get out.
Cleared all the rope out and verified nothing else in the impeller. Went to start it up and just got the single click from the relay. Thought relay might be dead so swapped them between engines. Now neither would start. Both just single clicks. So figuring “rope” relay is dead, and starter must be dead on “rope” engine. Swapped them back (non-rope engine fires up fine at this point so the relay is definitely OK.) replaced the starter AND relay on the “rope” engine and fired right up.
Must be some kind of voltage flowing through there with the impeller/shaft resistance to fry both the starter and the relay.