Battery loses charge on 350 Magnum quickly...

[UKJAK]

I have a 350 Magnum (put in four years ago) in my '84 197 Seville BR. It uses two batteries and will only start when my battery master switch is turned to "ALL", meaning both batteries are needed to start my boat. I don't know why this is, but I've never had any real problems out of running this way until this year. For some reason, my batteries are going dead. I think that "something" is pulling on them and just sucking all the juice out of the battery. More background...When I bought the boat, it had two amps which powered a nice stereo system. I've had them disconnected, I think, but still feel like maybe I missed something. What could still be sucking the juice out of these good batteries?

Anyone know why my boat won't start until the battery master switch is turned to "ALL?" Everyone else's boat that I boat with only uses one battery for cranking. I'm just looking for some help...

Thanks In Advance

 

[Morpheus]

You don't say how old the batteries are. Have you had them tested?

 

[wish2fish]

You might want to change that avatar or the Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee guys might not help you! :grin:

 

[Lazy Daze]

As noted above, have your batteries tested. Next thing would be to do an amp draw test. This is quite easy to do if you have a DVM, or any dealer (marine or automotive) should be able to do this for a nominal fee. Radio memory, Mercathode (if you have it) and your bilge pump should be wired directly to one of the batteries (not through the switch). So one of the batteries will have more draw on it than the other with the switch off. In my case, that one battery has about 49 milliamps.

 

[UKJAK]

I figured it out. Both of my batteries are fairly new. I had a radio memory pulling juice from one of the batteries which, for some reason, ended up being bad. It was an Interstate battery and I ended up exchanging that battery for a new one and I didn't have any problems with the battery this weekend.

Thanks!!

Wish2Fish-UK fan all the way!! I'm just as big a football fan as I am basketball too...