Perkins 4108 won’t start on start battery will start on house

[Lightssurfer]

Hi cruisers
I have a Perkins 4108 won’t start on start battery goes click click
I haven’t had boat long so still coming to grips with electrical system

Starts fine if use both house and start battery

Start battery has been replaced ..
I Fully charged battery on trickle charge then
Hooked it back up
Put multi meter on battery 12.98
Turned Engine on 14.02 volts
At 2000 rpm 14.45 to 14.65
Put system under load - turned all electrical stuff on
Held 14.45 volts
Connection to starter motor good and checked all connections clean and secure.
So probably not alternator ?
Is it solenoid?
Ideas please to locate problem
Thanks in advance

[SVTatia]

Originally Posted by Lightssurfer

Hi cruisers

I have a Perkins 4108 won’t start on start battery goes click click

I haven’t had boat long so still coming to grips with electrical system



Starts fine if use both house and start battery



Start battery has been replaced ..

I Fully charged battery on trickle charge then

Hooked it back up

Put multi meter on battery 12.98

Turned Engine on 14.02 volts

At 2000 rpm 14.45 to 14.65

Put system under load - turned all electrical stuff on

Held 14.45 volts

Connection to starter motor good and checked all connections clean and secure.

So probably not alternator ?

Is it solenoid?

Ideas please to locate problem

Thanks in advance

If you use the multimeter at the back of the battery switch, switched to the starting batt. only, do you get the same voltage as at the battery?

[Lightssurfer]

No
I’ll check that thanks

[Lightssurfer]

Check battery switch
Full range of volts going to switch and starter motor
Maybe losing amperage?
What setting on multimeter?
System does have way too much cable probably 6 metre
Must be losing amperage to starter ??

[smac999]

if it starts from one battery and not the other. the issue is not past the switch or on the engine. it's either a bad battery, bad switch, or bad wiring from battery to switch or battery to ground.

when using the volt meter you need to put a load on. a bad switch might still show 12v on both sides untill you start to crank.

if you put the 1-2-all swtich to engine does all the lights and boat stuff work fine?

[Lightssurfer]

Start battery new and been fully charged and checked on multimeter under load and no load - came up trumps - sorry very good readings
I suspect it maybe cable from battery to starter
It is in total around 7 meters long !
Previous owner upgraded house batteries to 400 amp hrs so they were installed under settee next to nav station with new 1-2 both switch but but start battery is located near engine 2-3 metre away and double that for running switching and there is a lot of cabling- it is large but I think big losses are occurring and only the house brings enough juice to get it started
I’m going to relocate the start near to switch and starter motor under nav chair - this may solve the problem
But
I also suspect bad solenoid- any way to check it ?
Ideas ?
Cheers

[chasfgr]

Dirty terminal connections - it's probably easiest to replace with new.
Check the return to the engine block - sometimes the problem is at that fixing.

[stormalong]

Check the voltage drop at the starter. Then work your way back towards the battery. A large voltage drop will occur up to the point where there is a bad connection (high resistance). Fix that connection and test again starting at the starter.

[Lightssurfer]

The boat is in good working order and terminals are cleaned and cleaned them again 😅
Checked voltage to starter motor to all fine / good
Thinking it’s either cabling too long to give sufficient amps
Or solenoid is no good many ideas on how to check solenoid ??
If I had jumper leads I’d do the direct start to see if cable is the problem
But I don’t
Perhaps I need to get some jumper leads and try that to eliminate whether the cable are the problem
😅

[sinnerman]

Make sure to check the Ground (Negative) battery to starter path.

Most people focus on the positive voltage side and forget that a complete / closed circuit is required..

[Seighlor]

I had a similar problem some months ago. As with you, everything appeared to be in first class shape. Finally employed a mechanic. He traced the fault to a bad ground cable. The cable looked good... terminals were clean... tested okay with a multimeter, but there was internal corrosion and it would not carry the current necessary to start the engine.

Hope this helps.

[mvmojo]

Originally Posted by sinnerman

Make sure to check the Ground (Negative) battery to starter path.

Most people focus on the positive voltage side and forget that a complete / closed circuit is required..

^^^ In my 40+ yrs of boating, 9 times out of 10 this is it! ^^^

[winschwab]

All good info. I had the same problem and lived with it for a year. Finally discovered problem was bad start battery. I installed a new start battery when I bought the boat. It was bad from day one. Replacement battery works fine.

[mitiempo]

Originally Posted by Lightssurfer

Or solenoid is no good many ideas on how to check solenoid ??

If the engine starts ok off the house bank it cannot be the solenoid. Check all wiring from start battery to switch - as posted both positive and negative. Not just the lugs but the cable itself.

[lordgeoff]

Originally Posted by Lightssurfer

Hi cruisers
I have a Perkins 4108 won’t start on start battery goes click click
I haven’t had boat long so still coming to grips with electrical system

Starts fine if use both house and start battery

Start battery has been replaced ..
I Fully charged battery on trickle charge then
Hooked it back up
Put multi meter on battery 12.98
Turned Engine on 14.02 volts
At 2000 rpm 14.45 to 14.65
Put system under load - turned all electrical stuff on
Held 14.45 volts
Connection to starter motor good and checked all connections clean and secure.
So probably not alternator ?
Is it solenoid?
Ideas please to locate problem
Thanks in advance

Your start battery could have failed. Also your earth at the engine block could need cleaning. Take out the stud. Clean it. Also clean the thread into the block. Try attaching your earth to a bell housing bolt.