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How to hunt-down the source of a battery drain? Any ideas? I have a 90hp Yammie 2S and it has always run fine and cranked up without any issues. Saturday it just wouldn't crank out in the bay. AJ helped me hand start her. We thought it was from running the livewell and I had used the boat battery to jump a car a few weeks before.

Battery is new, motor is new, we idled for about an hour and cut her off, she cranked, we ran for a few minutes, cut her off, she wouldn't crank...

Hand started her again, ran on plane and fished out the rest of the day without a problem. AJ said he heard a ticking under the cowling. I heard a faint ticking also.

Took the battery (interstate) to Advanced and it checked out and they charged it for me. Guy at Advanced said I should be putting distilled water in it???? Okay. But if the battery tested fine, and the motor wouldn't crank... there is a connection or drain problem somewhere... how do I find it with my 12v tester?

Did you remove the battery when you provided the "jump"?

Did you jump the car with the battery hooked to the boat? That could of caused something to flake out...I have seen/heard it cause issues with certain vehicles.

Take a meter and check the leads going to the battery with the engine running to see if it is charging the battery. If it isn't charging the battery, your altenator or something in the engine is not working.

If that is working, do you have a battery switch?

Yep. Battery in my wife's explorer started to go. I told her to just ride it out till it went. She got up early for an event about a week later and I slept-in. The Explorer wouldn't turn over. She came in the house and got my keys and took my truck to her event.

So I was there with a non-working car in the driveway. I pulled the cranking (house) battery out of the boat and jumped off the Explorer. Then I drove the Explorer to Advanced and bought/installed another battery in it. Then I put the house battery back in the boat - now I am having these problems...

I would first make sure the reinstallation of the battery back into the boat didn't result in a bad/loose connection. Everything seem to be OK prior to that event and I believe you said the battery tested OK.

You mentioned in the original post that Advanced charged the battery when you carried it to them. If the battery was low and in need of a charge then Chalk may be on the right track about verifying that your alternator is charging the battery properly. (a loose connection after the reinstall could have resulted in the same condition) Hook everything back up, either have a tester to verify the output or take it somewhere where it can be tested, crank the engine and test while running.

Slow Starter Solutions

You might want to check the solenoid and/or starter.
When you hold key in start position then 12 volts should be present at the big terminal on the solenoid with wire going to the starter.

If you have 12 volts there:

Most likely your problem is either in the starter motor: defective or worn brushes, bushings, armature, etc.... or..... not enough amps getting to the starter due to a problem in the negative or positive cables from the battery all the way to the starter.

It could be in a loose or corroded connection at battery, solenoid, starter terminal, or ground connection on engine block.
The cables themselves could be deteroiated inside as well!

Sometimes; but seldom a solenoid can cause an amp loss.

A quick substitution check for amp loss in old battery cables:

If you take a good heavy set of jumper cables and connect to your battery and carefully connect the ground to a good block ground near the starter; then carefully connect the positive cable to the post your positive battery cable goes to. Now try it to see if starter now has enough torque and rpms to engage drive and spin motor each time.

By trying the same method; substituting only the ground and trying it, and then trying only positive cable substitution you can determine which cable is the culprit.

If only one is bad, you might replace it alone, but if both are same age well, you know how it goes....

Make very sure you battery cables and battery terminals are very clean. I put a brand new battery on my boat and it would turn the starter but not engage the flywheel. Although the terminals and cables looked good, and had no corrosion at all, I had to clean each with sandpaper down to bare copper and get a very tight connection for the motor to start.

All of the above advise is good and valid. Here's my two cents worth.

I expect bringing the charge up on that battery is going to solve most of your problems of the previous trip. More than likely, your battery was low to start with, for whatever reason.
I would check the volts before and during start and run to be sure it's okay. It should be at between 12.5 and 13v after setting a week on full charge. It shouldn't go below 9.75v during the start procedure or the battery has problems. And, it should indicate somewhere between 13.5 and 15v while running/charging. All this based on what I've read and experience.
Like several have said, it might be a bad connection, so cleaning and securing your battery connectins might be in order. Replacing the wing nuts with s/s lock nuts is also a good idea.
I don't know about others, but I check my batteries with a meter the day before using the boat, anytime it has sat for more than a few days. If either of the three is low, even a little bit, I put the charger on it. I want to know, I'm not going to have problems when I get out there, and I do fish at night quite a bit, so more the reason. Also, keeping a meter onboard for troubleshooting is a pretty cheap way to go. They are about 20 bucks at W/M.

Most will tell ya, if you are going to fish more than a couple of miles from land, it's a good idea to install a second battery for accessories and dedicate the current one to starting and the bilge pump, or one of the bilge pumps, if you have two. A second battery is cheap insurance against most electrical problems on the water.
Good luck with it.

Afterthought- Here's a site. which is probably an overkill of info on the subject, but might be of interest to some..The guy feels it is worth 10 bucks for the time he spent compiling it. Maybe so, I donno..
http://www.islandnet.com/~robb/marine.html
Whatever happened to free info on the internet???
Another subject for sure..

Is there a way to use my trolling motor batteries to power a spotlight (with a 12v plug)? I wish I could use the TM batteries to spotlight flounder... Any thoughts?

Take the plasma back off the vessel!

Sounds Like you need to invest in a good quality deep cycle battery. If you have room, install a second battery and a good switch so you can use both batteries. Invest in an automatic battery charger that has multiple settings from 2 - 10 amps. You'll be glad you did.

You guys won't believe this my TRUCK battery just went dead this morning. Thats two car batteries in 6 weeks.

And a suspect boat battery.

Atticus wrote:You guys won't believe this my TRUCK battery just went dead this morning. Thats two car batteries in 6 weeks.

And a suspect boat battery.

It's probably that XM Satellite radio you installed. The satellites are sucking up all your power to stay aloft.

Let's see now..... ( ? )..... if I had an attorney liv'n next to me..... would I engage in some battery drain activities just ta mess with his mind?? ...

Naaa... that'd just not be right.

All the suggestions are good and could find the problem. If they don't try this.Disconnect battery and charge.
Check charged battery voltage.If it is 12 to 13.5 volts it is charged sufficiently.Set your multitester to the highest setting for amps.
Connect the negative to battery.Turn off all electrical switches, including main key switch, disconnect 12v power to gps, radio, etc. With the multitester put one probe on positive battery terminal and other on positive cable.If the meter reads an amp draw a wire, switch, etc., has a bad connection.If that is the case keep amp probes on, disconnect wires one at a time from switches, terminal blocks, etc.until there is no amp draw. That will be the faulty circuit. If you still haven't found the problem, start reconnecting 12 v to gps, etc. Until there is an amp draw.
Where you get an amp draw is the problem circuit. AS an old electrical engineer that is the process I use. GOOD LUCK

Good advice there Doublehooks : I'm printing it off and putting it in the boat file for future reference.