Plug for Fuel pump relay damaged - How do I fix this? See Pic

My boat hasn't been running for almost a month. My port engine shut off unexpectedly 10 feet from the dock. I determined that I was not getting fuel, but didn't know why. I took it to the local marina for repairs. One week later they told me they found the problem, it was a bad relay. They charged me just over $300 for 2 hours labor and relay switch. I picked the boat up an took it home. (The marina is less than 1 mile away down the lagoon)

The next day I went for a ride and made it as far as the no wake buoy by my house and the engine shut down again. Total drive time was less than 10 minutes from when I picked the boat up from the marina. I limped back home and tied up for the night. The next morning I decided to go and purchase another relay and install it myself to see if burnt out again. I installed the new relay and the engine still wouldn't start. I decided to take it back to the marina again for repairs. I told them that I looked at the plug that the relay plugs into and it looked damaged. I explained that my eyesight wasn't that good, but I think there may be a problem with the plug. I was told by the service manager that he would ask the mechanic to look at it.

They didn't look at the boat until 4:00 the following Friday. They called me and told me that my relay was fine but my fuel pump was seized and I needed a new cool fuel 3 unit. The price would be $1500 with labor. I asked if they had the part in stock and they told me they had to order it and it would be in the following Tuesday.

Tuesday arrives and I get a phone call that the unit is back ordered and would not be in for another 2 weeks! I finally had enough I told him I was coming to pick the boat up and I would fix it myself. So I get the boat back and decide to test the power going to the fuel pump to see if it is getting power. I determine that I get 12 volts down at the fuel pump when I hit the power switch up at the dash. I decide to go with the marinas diagnosis of a seized pump I order a new Cool Fuel 3 unit.

When I removed the original unit, the water plastic inserts in the water hoses cracked, which was predicted in Frank Webster's write up about these poorly designed POS. I also found that the pump had been dripping sea water onto my motor mount which had a considerable amount of rust on it.

After removing the pump, I decide to take it apart to test the individual pumps and determine that they are both working. ARGH!! You can guess what happens next. I install the new Cool Fuel 3 and I right back where I started. Engine wont start, fuel pump not running. Up until this point I was reluctant to touch the other engine, but out of sheer frustration I decide to take the relay from the starboard engine and try in my port engine. I hear the pumps running and the engine starts! My luck doesn’t last long. I took the boat for a quick ride, returned and washed it and decided to go out again but it doesn’t start.

I took the following picture of the plug that the relays plugs into and blew it up. There is clearly damage to one of the legs and I am not getting good contact. I tried to put a few strands of copper wire in the plug to see if that helped make contact and it didn’t. (you can see there is still one strand in plug when I took the picture) I went on line to see if I can purchase the plug and found out that it is part of the engine wiring harness and is not sold separately. The wiring harness retails for $900.00.

Any suggestion on how to fix this? Is there a junk yard for Mercruiser engines where I can purchase a plug? This has not been a good boating season for me.

4 weeks in August, without my boat, $2200 out of pocket expense (I purchase 2 new Cool Fuel 3 units with the intention of replacing the other one as well), and my boat still isn’t running

You can find those plugs and solder it in and shrink wrap it.

Thanks for the feedback. I have been looking for the plugs but can't find them. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Last night I decided to stuff a little piece of tin foil in it as a test and it worked. I need a more permanent solution though.

Have you tried electronics suppliers like RS for relay bases? If you really can't find a base to fit just get a different relay with same spec rating but spade terminals and put spade sockets on the end of the wires and slip them on.

It's nice to keep it original if you can but for $900 or not having a working boat I would just swap it out for an easier to connect relay. Could put heatshrink over the terminals to ensure the spades don't slide off or short and heatshrink or amalgamation tape wrap the whole relay to stop moisture getting into it and ensure it is ignition protected.

Ants

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2

Well I was using the wrong word in my search. After searching for a relay socket I came across this. http://www.pcsconnectors.com/12065685.aspx. Looks likes may need a .22 cent connector. Far cry from the $2200.00 I already laid out.

And this

[video=youtube;If01s3Y5w2E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If01s3Y5w2E&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

if you take a small jewelers flat blade screw driver there is a small locking tab on the side of the connectors that lock them into the plug. you can see it on your link to the socket page. by pushing the screw driver in from the plug side and depressing the tab you can pull the plug wire and the connector will pull out. you might be able to clean it up with an ignition points file or some emery paper.

there was a reason the connector melted and that was most likely due to current draw from the pump.

2000SEARAY280SS said:

if you take a small jewelers flat blade screw driver there is a small locking tab on the side of the connectors that lock them into the plug. you can see it on your link to the socket page. by pushing the screw driver in from the plug side and depressing the tab you can pull the plug wire and the connector will pull out. you might be able to clean it up with an ignition points file or some emery paper.

there was a reason the connector melted and that was most likely due to current draw from the pump.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I wasn't sure how to remove the terminal to replace it.

I found another site that has the entire socket, relay and connectors for $20 each. I am going to order 2.
http://www.bmotorsports.com/shop/product_info.php/products_id/504

Make sure you have the correct crimping tool for the new connectors. If you have to replace any that is. Glad you found a less pain full solution.

Pyrojodge said:

Make sure you have the correct crimping tool for the new connectors. If you have to replace any that is. Glad you found a less pain full solution.

Click to expand...

Thanks.. I just amended my order to include a crimper for those connectors. I have to say, I am blow away by the price. $20 for a new socket, relay, connectors and seals is a very good price. I paid the marina over $30 just for the relay.

Vince, Even though your marina is close to your home in the future you may want to bring your boat to another marina for repairs... I don't bring my boat to closest marina for anything complicated... I see Brian at Dillan's Creek in Island Heights. His mechanics are very good with hard to solve problems, and he owns a Sea Ray...

Rod

Good advice. I don't think I will be returning to that marina anytime soon. I basically repossed my boat once they told me the fuel pump was back ordered for 2 additional weeks. I told them I would fix it myself and then drove to the Marina on a jet ski after they were closed and took my boat back. I was waiting to see if they were going to call me to pay them for their 2nd (bad) diagnosis. I figured they made enough when they charged me $300 in labor to change a relay 2 weeks earlier.

google cube relays
Personally I`d use a cube relay and crimp on spade terminals instead of the OEM terminals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fmob1nWNvI

Update

I successfully replaced the burnt terminal in the relay socket and the fuel pump started running. I took the boat for a 10 mile ride to a restaurant on the water to celebrate. When I was picking up a mooring the engine shut off again! :smt013 WTF?

New pump, new terminal. What else could this be? :huh:

I tried replacing the relay again and it didn’t work. I switched relays with the other engine and it started. The relay was not the problem. I returned to my house on one engine (2 hour troll). I was totally disgusted. That night I started thinking about where my problems started and I remembered how the feeler gauge on multitester fit in the female socket down at the fuel pump, but when I went tried to test the power to the pump on the good engine, the feeler wouldn’t fit and I didnt want to force it.

I decided to go back to the boat and check for damage on all the sockets. When I looked inside the female socket down at the fuel pump I discovered that it looked like it was too far open. I stuffed a little aluminum foil inside to test it and waala! The fuel pump started working! :smt038


So how did this happen? THE STUPID ASS MECHANIC that I paid over $300 to diagnose my faulty relay, must have stuffed his multitester feeler gauge inside the female socket and spread the opening too wide which caused the fuel pump to not have good contact. When the boat broke down again and I returned it to the marina, the same idiot diagnosed my fuel pump as bad because he was seeing power with his gauge, but the pump wouldn’t run. It turns out this IDIOT created my problem and cost me the entire month of August and triggered me purchasing new fuel pumps when I didn’t need them.

I tried to replace the damaged terminal down at the fuel pump, but I was unable to get it to slide out. I used this tool (thin blade) to succesfully to replace the socket up at the relay, but I can't get the sockets down at the pump to back out of the plug. Do I need a different tool? I see they sell a thick blade as well. Any advice is appreciated. I am just happy to finally have this figured out.

Depending on the pin the tool either goes into the front of the connector to release the locking ears or it could go into the back. Often pins have a corresponding custom extraction tool and you may be up against that.

If the pins are just spreed then you might be able to close the pin gap up if you can get a pair of needle nose pliers or a small screw driver in there pry away and close up the pin.

With the connector burned like you showed in the earlier pictures you had one of two failures. High current draw from the pump or a lose connection creating the high current draw.

Does thinking about fuel savings for the month of August help? I did not think so.:grin:

Hey vince I hope everything works out for you. This is why i love this website. I have saved so much money by doing things myself after reading other peoples ideas and various problems that they have had with there searays. I wouldn't be shocked at all if someone else has the same problem you had and could use this info to help them.

2000SEARAY280SS said:

Does thinking about fuel savings for the month of August help? I did not think so.:grin:

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I am taking comfort in the fact that I am that much wiser about trouble shooting these issues. This was a first time I dealt with "Delphi" connectors, sockets and crimpers and I much more sensitive to sticking feeler guages inside thin aluminum terminals. I may be $2000 poorer, but I am also $2000 wiser. Who knew that alumium foil could be such a great tool to diagnose connection issues? :smt001 I don't recommend sticking it in a fuse pannel, but I could have used it to get my boat home last Friday . Another key learning was the need to have the correct tools to work with these connectors.

Pyrojodge said:

Make sure you have the correct crimping tool for the new connectors. If you have to replace any that is. Glad you found a less pain full solution.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion to purchase the correct crimper!

2000SEARAY280SS said:

With the connector burned like you showed in the earlier pictures you had one of two failures. High current draw from the pump or a lose connection creating the high current draw.

Click to expand...

I never addressed this point. When I removed the old Cool Fuel 3 unit I disasembled it, poured the fuel through a coffee filter and took pictures. I am planning on posting my findings in another thread. The short story is that there were paint particlles in the compartment where the fuel was which ended up in the coffee filter and you can see how the paint came off the inside of the fuel cooler. We (my neighbor was helping) removed the fuel pumps and tested them using a battery charger. Both ran. When I went in the house to get paper towels, my neighbor flipped one of the pumps over and removed all of the paint off of the bottom of the intake screen on the pump. I wanted to take a picture of it, but he did it when I was in the house. He told me it was completey covered with a film of paint. My suspicion is that the pump screen was clogged, the regulutor was calling for more pressure and the pump put too much of a draw on the system, burning out my relay and connector. This can all be traced back to Mercruisers decision to paint the inside of these things and the Gov requiring the use of Ethanol.

To add insult to injury, I took the new pump apart (different part #) and was surprised to see that Mercruiser painted the inside of the newly designed unit as well. More stupidity!

Vince

Service Bulletin on Cool Fuel. Don't know if this is you.

http://www.mercruiserparts.com/bulletins/001/04//2009/EN_01.PDF

mistercomputerman said:

Vince

Service Bulletin on Cool Fuel. Don't know if this is you.

http://www.mercruiserparts.com/bulletins/001/04//2009/EN_01.PDF

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Thanks Rick. That is my unit, but the replacement part only addresses the poorly designed raw water issue, not the Ethanol/paint issue.

The original design had a water hose connection design I have never seen before. There were plastic plugs that got pressed inside the fuel cool unit that were held in (and removed) by a steel plate with a nut. Tighen the nut and the plugs got pushed in loosen the nut and the plugs come out. When you remove the nut, the steel plate pulls away from the cool unit and trys to back the plastic plugs out, but the plastic plugs break (mine did) and you have to replace the unit. (There is an option to replace just the housing for ~$450 or purchase the entire unit with the pumps ~$1,000 The new unit switched back to a more traditional setup with screw in plugs that the hoses slide over and a hose clamp is used. Once the screw in plastic plugs are installed they stay in the unit and you disconnect the hoses by loosening the hose clamps and sliding them off. Version 3 of this "upgrade" has a blue drain plug that allows you to drain sea water out of the unit when winterizing. So after purchasing 2 of these new and improved units, I come to find out that Mercruiser is still painting the inside and the government is still forcing us to purchase Ethanol. This unit will fail again in the next 5 or 6 years.

There needs to be a class action law suit against Mercruiser for this selling this crap and telling customers that it is safe to use Ethanol, it is not and they know it. I am out $2,000 and lost 1/3 of my summer because of this. What is that worth?



This is what came out.

Vince_nj1 said:

Update

I successfully replaced the burnt terminal in the relay socket and the fuel pump started running. I took the boat for a 10 mile ride to a restaurant on the water to celebrate. When I was picking up a mooring the engine shut off again! :smt013 WTF?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the post. I need to replace the socket for my relay too. Any idea what gauge the wires are? I will need to extend mine since the harness wires are so tight. Also, what crimping tool did you get?

Thank you for the assist. Looking forward to having my boat running again.