Electrical trouble shooting

[tap_tap_boom]

Hey guys, I fished 2 different tournaments the week before last and had an interesting electrical issue that I thought I'd throw out here before fully dissecting it this coming weekend.

Day 1:
No issues all day, weigh in at 3:30 and being that we had a terrible day we decided to go back out.
Fished a few hours and just as it starts to get dark we head back
Motor starts right away no lag, fires right up.
I switch the anchor/running lights on
I notice shortly there after that the graphs go out and the lights on the switches are flickering like it's low on power
Smartcraft gauge was flickering, trying to turn on
I figure we fished all day with 3 graphs, livewell running, etc. that the batter was low.
About 3 minutes into the run the gauges come on, so I'm thinking the big motor was powering everything and I thought confirmed it was the starter battery.
Plug it in over night

Day2:
One green light and one red light on the charger (stealth and whatever came on the 2010 charger, forgot the name) I figure the starter charged and the trollers didn't
Fires right up, all graphs, gauges work fine
About an hour in, my front graph goes out and then I hear the livewell struggling. Again, I'm thinking it's the starter battery.
We fish another 4 hours with out graphs and with a struggling livewell, but every time I went to run the motor started without issue.
Then all of the sudden in the last 2 hours everything is fine. Like nothing had every happened.

This past Sunday I take my son out, everything is fine and the batteries are fully charged.
As soon as we were about to go it happened again, graphs go out, dash gauges go out, but the smartcraft gauge is working fine and of course the motor fired right up.

I'm going to pull the starter and have it tested on Saturday, but I really feel like there's a short somewhere and it's not the battery. The battery is just over a year old, no corrosion on the terminals, and the fact that the motor fired right up is what has me thinking it's not the issue.

Anyone have any trouble shooting advice to speed up my Saturday?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

[scj]

Sounds like a loose ground or if you have a disconnect switch, it sounds like one side of the switch has loose wires. If you do have one, I bet your engine wires are on the hot side of the switch, correct?

I just replaced a new cranking battery that was 6 months old and only used twice so they do go bad but that does not sound like your issue.

[tap_tap_boom]

Thanks scj. I'm thinking short or ground as well, just wanted to eliminate the battery. There is a main kill switch and I'm not sure how it's connected, it's raining here in CA and the boat is unfortunately in my driveway so it will have to wait until this weekend.

[scj]

Inside the rear center compartment you can access the back side of the disconnect. Take the two plastic wing nuts off to remove the black plastic cover and check the lugs.
Just below the positive lugs is the ground lug.

[Woody22]

Inside the rear center compartment you can access the back side of the disconnect. Take the two plastic wing nuts off to remove the black plastic cover and check the lugs.
Just below the positive lugs is the ground lug.

This^^^^^^^^

[JDM]

it doesn't sound like a battery issue if you have a maint battery its great because you can actually test the specific gravity with the ol turkey baster lol.. but you are able to determine if its a failing cell. AGM, GEL you can't. You can do a lesser test by terminals v-meter and get an indication.

[Tim Powell]

Sounds like a loose connection somewhere. Are you using the threaded posts w/ wingnuts? If so make sure the wingnuts are snug, or better yet replace them with locknuts. Another possibility is one of the posts could have been over tightened and damaged that post down inside the battery. If your battery has lead post an easy way to test this would be to use the post to threaded clamp on adapters.

I would also check the connections to the disconnect switch like Steve suggested.

[Props4u2]

All good answers on the connections.
Be sure to check the ones going to the fuse panel in the Starboard rear compartment also.

[tap_tap_boom]

Thanks everyone! Tomorrow I will be Inspector Clouseau!

[tap_tap_boom]

Ground wire on the fuse block was loose, thankfully didn't take that long.

[scj]