Boat won't start '01 SAN

[khaz]

I am hoping someone is on here late, because we are supposed to be heading out to the lake in the morning. I had the boat out for a short day a couple months ago, and everything worked fine. We are gettting ready to start going out more often starting tomorrow, but getting things ready this evening the key pad is not giving me power each time I turn it on. I had the radio on while I was working out there, but the gauges do not respond each time I tried to see if they are working. I am able to get the power now and then, I just have to keep turning the keypad off and then try again. I am not sure this is what I want once we are on the water.

[Flux]

Start with the batteries. If you have a volt meter, check em for charge.

They should be over 12V, but you can research that on the net as to what exactly a charged battery should read, I forget, but i think it's around 12.5V

Pull your car battery and switch it out just to check, easiest way to see if it's a bad battery.

Good luck, other than that I am somewhat lost, but i would try the battery first.

[khaz]

The first time we had the boat out, it was the battery, but Rick had me pick up a trickle charger that was attached until last night. The battery is good right now, it is something that is not allowing the boat to power up on a consistant basis. Sometimes when I touch the start button I get power to the gauges and will be able to turn it over, and sometimes I don't. I always get the initial power which gives me the radio. It is the second time I touch the start button to engage everything else. I hope I am making sense.

[lztat573]

Sometimes I had a problem with my 99 SN doing somewhat the same thing, and I just had to wiggle the throttle around and then it would fire up and work.

[MHayes]

Sounds like it may be a grounding issue. I would double check the ground at the battery and make sure it's clean and tight.

[khaz]

Well, we had the boat out all day, and no problems. The only thing I could think of now, would be the bilge pump switch. I usually turn it off at the house, and was trying that when I was having problems getting power, but once we got power at the lake, we had it all day long. I obviously wasn't turning that on or off. Has anyone had any type of short there?