blowin fuses!

alright every time i go to start the engine now, the fuse on the charging wire blows, after it blows sometime everything still works, sometimes nothing works. sometimes it wont even send power to the signal on the solenoid, sometimes it will but it just repetitively clicks like it doesn't have enough power. I pulled the rigging all apart and checked all my connections and everything is good. ground is good as well. it just started doing this out of nowhere. what could it be? i should include i installed a tach shortly before it started happening. also the wire coming from the rectifier that passes through the feed to the solenoid, this is the charging wire rite?

its a 87 25hp omc.

please help me i suck with electrical and my multi meter finally quit on me....

most common reason for repetitive blowing of fuses is amperage take a voltmeter to it and check the amps when you are starting it

i don't understand, there should be 4 amps going through the charging wire on this engine, what would cause any higher amps from the coil? it would have to be getting to much amps from the feed to the solenoid, but it shows in the diagram it is supposed to connect there. could a bad starter motor do this?

heavy-chevy said:

i should include i installed a tach shortly before it started happening.

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Have you tried disconnecting your tach?

ST

well after reading your first post again that you said that somtimes the fuse blows and everything works the leads me to believe that the overcurrent is coming from a double feed you have something wired in series instead of parallel have you taken a voltmeter to it yet to see what it is doing the cheap analog ones are best for this sort of stuff because you can see spikes unlike the digital voltmeters and just like slime time said have you disconnected the tach and tried to see if it is still doing it

you lost me with the parallel thing, im not very good with electrical. can someone clarify what exactly this fuse is for, this is the wire coming from the rectifier, so i thought it was only for charging, but along the ways its also hooked inline with the power feed to the solenoid, then to the battery.

also the tach moves when i use power to other things... im going to wall mart to buy a new multimeter later, i will get started on diagnosing this mess tomorrow.

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:01 pm Reply with quote

"also the tach moves when i use power to other things"
Don't think that should happen,try what someone(ST) else said disconnect the tach,start from scratch.Thats the only thing you have done lately as well.

yea i will try that out. now that i think of it its probably because the tach zeros out once it has power and power is fed from the key, so are my lights/horn. sh!t i might have power for the tach inline to the lights which is inline to the horn, then bilge has its own power uhhhh.... the wiring is a mess on this thing, i will have to pull the dash all apart.

anyone know where i can find a decent multimeter, maybe napa? i have tried all of the ones wallmart and ace have to offer and none of them last longer then a few months. the digital wall mart ones lasted a day each, and the cheapo needle one i got today holds the record for lasting a total of 10 minutes out of the box. i checked it for ohms in the truck on the way home, it worked fine. when i got home put it to the battery to see how it reads volts, nothing, check ohms nothing, change battery still nothing #-o . i knew i would be returning it for $10, but **** i thought i could at least get a few day out of it. gotta love that Chinese quality.

i think i have an idea it came to me after a couple beers the fuse should be on a seperate wire to the rectifier and the starter solonoid requires much more amps so it needs to be on a solid wire no fuse this by theory should stop the fuse poppin

heavy-chevy said:

yea i will try that out. now that i think of it its probably because the tach zeros out once it has power and power is fed from the key, so are my lights/horn. sh!t i might have power for the tach inline to the lights which is inline to the horn, then bilge has its own power uhhhh.... the wiring is a mess on this thing, i will have to pull the dash all apart.

anyone know where i can find a decent multimeter, maybe napa? i have tried all of the ones wallmart and ace have to offer and none of them last longer then a few months. the digital wall mart ones lasted a day each, and the cheapo needle one i got today holds the record for lasting a total of 10 minutes out of the box. i checked it for ohms in the truck on the way home, it worked fine. when i got home put it to the battery to see how it reads volts, nothing, check ohms nothing, change battery still nothing #-o . i knew i would be returning it for $10, but **** i thought i could at least get a few day out of it. gotta love that Chinese quality.

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I'd try a local electrical parts/supply house - something like Rexel or Graybar. Get a Fluke, I've had mine for over 10 years and it's never missed a lick. Fluke is what the power company uses and what most electricians I've seen use.

bobessary said:

i think i have an idea it came to me after a couple beers the fuse should be on a seperate wire to the rectifier and the starter solonoid requires much more amps so it needs to be on a solid wire no fuse this by theory should stop the fuse poppin

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thats what i thought too, but this is how the factory wiring is so it must be rite. the solenoid feed has its own wire but the rectifier wire passes through the same terminal on the solenoid, then to a fuse, then to the battery.

If you put power or have power on when checking ohms,the meter is gonna blow a fuse or crap out all together.Flukes are good meters and good lures

mo, by checking ohms i mean i just touched the tow wires on the meter together. yea i went on ebay and couldn't find any flukes in my price range and quickly realized that i just need another cheapo for now just to fix the problem and get a nicer one when i can afford it, so i got a $15 one at auto zone, it should last long enough to figure this out. i didn't have a chance to get started today though.

couldn't tell you what exactly the problem was but i just had to redo a bunch of crappy corroded connections, and everything works fine now. now that i think of it, it really started last friday after i ran it all day saltwater, then left it at a slip overnight without hosing it off, i guess that was enough to ruin all the crappy automotive grade connections i used. i replaced everything with shrink wrap stuff, should have done that to start with.

Glad you got it fixed . That salt water can do some nasty stuff to boats and wiring.

yea im thinking i should put some anodes on the transom, all of my hardware is already getting corroded, and its stainless, salt water is a pain. I wish i had some lakes nearby, I'm not even any good at inshore fishing lol.

buy yourself a meter from northern tool or harbour freight. i have 1 that i keep in my toolbox and 1 i keep in my car for just in case. they were both cheap and work when i need them to.