No Power at all. High temp, just shut off, no lights at all? More Help Please!

[Hungry Man]

Hi Folks, thanks for the bilge pump help!  I now after 2 days of playing on the lake, have a complete shut down of the power systems.  Battery terminals are tight, I have not taken a meter to the battery yet, but it sounded fine when I started it just before it died.  Was running hot, around 230 temp but would cool very quickly once moving.  Also are they proned to high temps when at idle?  Anytime I sat still it would heat up.  Gauges are pinned at where they were, both RPM temp and speed.  Now, nothing at all, no horn, no stereo, nothing!  Is there a main fuse?  the emerg shut off switch seamed to be pinned properly. 

What can kill the whole boat???

PS.  Are there operator manuals on line?  I will search the site more, but I am a little lost on the ballast system.  It pumps shower waster but won't fill the ballast? 

Also, there is some big 1 1/2" valve in front of the battery that supplies water to something but the valve seams to be in the closed position.  What does that feed??? 

Thank you all in advance.  So far I'm having a blast with the boat.  A little stiff from wakeboarding though!

[eagle1wi]

Check the inline fuse near the Perko switch - that fuse gets corroded on many boats and if that happens you are pretty much dead in the water.

[lesman01]

Hungry Man, This is not all that uncommon as the electrical system in these boats is the achiles heel. i had similar thing happen.

A few easy things to do first: Crawl under the dash and press all the harness connectors together. Might even disconnect and reconnect to make sure they are all seated well. Check the ground terminal under the dash and make sure the nut holding the ground wires is tight. same with the red wire on the terminal. Do this while there is no power running to the dash....take green key out, or switch perko power switch off.

The hot reading is PROBABLY the electrical as I had a similar issue with hot reading until i ran an extra ground wire from the battery terminal to the ground terminal under the dash., It's run steady 170 ever since. 230 is TOO high at any speed if it is a true reading. Check the impeller and clean see strainer.

There are numerous posts about the ground wire addition and the electrical system if you poke around the forum a bit..

let us know how it goes.

[Bitzco]

That big valve should be your ballast valve. It needs to be open for the ballast to work.

[PSullivan3]

The boat should idle for long periods of time.Shut it down.

[HCollado]

 

Check and replace your impeller!!! it will go to a safe mode if it's overheating eventually shutting down.

[skiboarder]

Eagle1 saved my ass last season with the fuse under the perko, good spot for it, NOT!
Thanks man!

[PSullivan3]

That previous post should say not idle for a long period of time

[westtx]

It is no doubt a good practice to not let the boat idle for long periods of time, but mine will idle forever at 170 degrees. I'm betting on the impeller.

[Hungry Man]

Hi folks, mine is the boat with no power at all, shut down while running, gauges say 230 degrees.

If it shut down because it was hot as a safety measure to protect the engine, will it auto reset or do I have to replace a fuse or push a circut breaker back in? 

If you know the answer, can you please tell me where the fuse or breaker might be?

I have to drive 2 hours to my lake lot to try and fix it, so I just want to be prepared as best I can. 

Can you buy electronic copies of the boat repair manuals that the dealers would have had?  I don't know where all the parts are yet, but I am learning fast.  I have the Maintenance Manual off of this forum.  It's helping a lot!

Thanks again,
 
Hungry Man.

[cyclone]

What boat, year do you have? That would be most informative. Prolly just a gauge problem, but an impeller change wouldn't hurt if it's new to you. Once you do that, ignore the gauges until you winterize. My 02:) See the maintenance page and peruse it well  before you panic again:)

[masonlk]

If it is actually 230 degrees not only will you feel the heat when you lift the engine cover you will also smell it. You should be able to hold your hand on the upper bend in the exhaust manifolds. It'll be hot but it won't burn you if the temp is at the 165 to 175 that it should be.

New plugs, new impeller, new oil, clean the MAS and run the 8 gauge wires to the dash are always a good start. Then you have the beginning of a known time line for the care/maintenance of your boat. Keep a little notebook in your boat and write down everything you do to it and when.The older you get the harder it will be to remember when the hell you did something.
Was that last spring or last month?

[PSullivan3]

What if you forget where the book is?

[masonlk]

In the boat = finite space to search.