battery or starter is dieing

[sandbarDan]

'98 150 johnson FS j150glecd
so I went fishing this weekend about 25 degrees in the morning. motor would only turn over slowy no fire. I hook up jumper cables to the a trolling motor battery same result. voltage on all batteries is 12.00 or better. When motor is trying to start voltage reads 8 on the gps unit then goes back to 12 or 11.9-8. It did the same thing in early spring sub freezing weather but always managed to start After outside temp warmed up a little finally got it to start. After initial start if fires right up the rest of the day. My batteries are only about a year old and trim motor and everything else seem to work fine so I'm thinking my starter is weak and needs to be rebuilt or replaced. Does that sound right?


Modified by sandbarDan at 9:31 PM 12/27/2011

[Bassmeister]

A fully charged battery is 12.7 volts......I'd load test start battery before suspecting the starter....JMHO At 12.0 volts that battery is weak at best....

[sandbarDan]

I didn't check the voltage until after ran it down cranking (slowly ). It reads 12.7 fully charged. What makes me think it is the starter is when I used the jumper cables to the trolling motor battery it had no effect at all. I checked the voltage with the jumper cables attached with a meter at 12.4 volts. My trolling motor batteries are good for sure because I can run all day in the wind and not loose power.

[SEAHORSE]

A healthy starting system and battery will read about 10 volts while cranking. If it is lower, then the battery, cables, or connections are probably at fault. Have the starter checked also, but if this only happens in the cold, then it's probably one of the first three items.

For cold weather its best to use a 1000MCA or 800CCA battery for that engine.

[jav389]

just had the same issue with my rude put a new starter and it fixed the problem