zuke df 250 wacky volt meter need help

[got4on]

i fish my boat almost every weekend.....

had my motor, 07 zuke 250, going on 2 years now...

the 2 batteries i run jumped together, are probably a little over 3years old ..

went to the lake tonight for a little friday striper action after a long weeks work...

motor cranked fine but showed only about 12 to 13 volts , as opposed to the normal 14 it usually shows as i was idling away from the dock...

thought i might of left something on in the driveway that ran it down during the week and proceeded to get her up on plane...

volt meter started going nuts , swinging from 10 to 13 volts or so then the motor completley shut down.....oh crap.....

sat there a min then it fired right back up......

swung it back around to the dock and proceeded to undo all 4 battery cables and hit em with some sand paper since they had some minor corrosion on them...

turned the key over and it showed the normal 14 volts as usual....good deal.... lets go fishing.....

half a mile up the lake, same crap again....

limped back to the dock and tied up to try and sort some more stuff out....

the darn thing went from being able to fire back up at will, to absolutly nothing now when you turn the switch on.......it beeps like one weak beep then dead....

now when you hit the trim on the throttle it trims up or down for about 1 sec, the goes dead..............BUT WILL TRIM JUST FINE FROM THE TRIM SWITCH AT THE MOTOR....HMMMMMMM

just got home and put the primary battery on charge and its only showing like 50% charge........

this motor has started strong and fine for going on 2 years now and has always showed 14 volts on the suzuki volt meter...

it showed 13.8 on my furuno sounder tonight when it was wacking out????

can a pair of batterys that you use almost every weekend, go south that quick??

and if so, will it cause a zuke 250 to go nuts like it did on the volt meter, and completly fall on its face ,instead of just showing a gradual dropping of the volts over time??

tx for the help

[got4on]

just bought and installed 2 new group 27 ,1000 cranking amp batteries and nothing changed.....

turn the key over, 4 red lights on the gauge come on faintly and beeps very weak for about 1 sec....

then dead as can be.....

next time same thing, but the darn motor will start normal as ever and run...

trim switch from the throttle will work in bursts then quit alltogether.....

trim switch at the motor will always work ......

volt meter will twitch when you turn the key over then lay dead below 10 volts now, even when the thing up and starts when it does......??

checked the white wire at the motor...bullet conn looks perfect and so do all other connections....

i keep the inside sprayed down and very rarely use it in saltwater....

couldnt find where the white wire is on the battery end....

checked all fuses, but if it was a fuse it would work or it wouldnt i would think.....not off and on like its doing.....

would a bad ignition switch cause all of the above???

tx for the help again.....

[got4on]

man this place is dead...

[welder]

Sounds like you have a bad connection at the helm/batts or a bad ground . They did use tin coated wire on ALL of your cables , yes?

Do you have a selector switch so you can check one battery at a time .

And the fun part is you get to replace ALL of your batteries [ it sounds like you did ] when one goes bad , as a bad one will bring down a good one very fast.

[got4on]

Sounds like you have a bad connection at the helm/batts or a bad ground . They did use tin coated wire on ALL of your cables , yes?

Do you have a selector switch so you can check one battery at a time .

And the fun part is you get to replace ALL of your batteries [ it sounds like you did ] when one goes bad , as a bad one will bring down a good one very fast.

was a friggin corroded 25 cent fuse in my bilge that took the mech 2 hours and 150 bucks to find.....wow.......just wow.....next time ill know......

[got4on]

tx to all that tried to help out!! man this place sure wont ever be the hulltruth huh...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Edited May 5, 2010 by got4on

[Chisox]

tx to all that tried to help out!! man this place sure wont ever be the hulltruth huh...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Thank God...

[tompass]

Just went through the same thing. Corroded connections was cause.

[Cracker Larry]

Why would anyone put a main power fuse in the bilge

Edited May 15, 2010 by Cracker Larry

[Chisox]

Why would anyone put a main power fuse in the bilge

Actually, Larry, It's a Suzuki deal, if I think what the OP was talking about. There is a white, single wire harness that plugs into a bullet connector on the powerhead of Suzukis. Hook it up constant hot or switched, doesn't matter. On this wire, close to a batt, is an in-line fuse holder...now it comes with the engine that way, in the rigging kit.

And any person who's been around Suzukis for the last 4 years should have known to check that fuse...