Marinette Boat Forum

So my friend bought my old houseboat with 318s in it. The starboard works without issues. We can't get the port engine to crank. We took the working starter from my boat to see if that was the issue. Same results. We are able to crank by hand with a breaker bar. We ran out of light but will be pulling the plugs and trying again.

When trying to start, the boat will engage the flywheel but can't get it rotating. Like there isn't enough torque.

Bad Ground or Dying battery would be my guess. Although I have ran across a bad starter solenoid once, the contacts in the solenoid were fried
bill

We bypassed everything. We hooked up the starboard battery to the starter and the same thing. This sounds dumb but could a dry raw water pump prevent it from fully cranking. It is almost as if it stops itself when the starter goes.

The plugs are all out? If not, could be water in a cylinder.

Jeff

So in a last ditch effort I had them buy a new battery today. That fixed it. They worked on it by themselves yesterday and told me they put a good battery on it. The date on the battery was 2005. We all felt soooooo stupid.

Beats paying somebody to troubleshoot it for you! Glad you figured it out.

I had a old battery close to 6 years old, which was swelling up and hot as hell. Lucky to have caught it in time.

I use Interstate and Autozone's Duralast both of which are made by Johnson Controls.

I think the interstates are made to last longer. I will never buy Auto Zone Batts again. I had to add water to them every few months. They only last about 2 years. I have never had to put water in the interstates. I think they put more lead in them. You get what u pay for in Batts.. That's for sure.