# Yamaha 2003 225 4 stroke acts like the battery is dead



## Billybob+ (Jul 12, 2011)

We went to use one of our precious snapper days yesterday and my Starboard motor would only "click" like the batter was dead.

The batteries on only a year old so I checked connections and the cable on the output side of the battery switch was completely loose so I felt we'd solved it.

No Joy, so then we'd decided the battery might be dead from the loose connection not allowing the motor to properly charge it. We took a battery from the truck and still no joy even with battery directly connected to the hot lead to the motor (eliminating the switch as a potential culprit)

swapped key switches at the dash and the problem stayed with the motor, by the way, in every case we would try the same components on the port motor and the port motor would always start fine.

pulled the air intake and the solenoid had some corrosion on the brown wire that I supposed was the solenoid switch wire. couldn't figure out how to pull it to clean it but tried jumping 12v straight to that and still only got a click at best.

any thoughts??

thanks


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## KingMe!!! (Apr 25, 2008)

Starter on that motor bad maybe...


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## Billybob+ (Jul 12, 2011)

thought about that, It seems to turn freely, but that doesn't guarantee it's not it. Do you know if the starter/solenoid come as one unit or do you buy the set?



KingMe!!! said:


> Starter on that motor bad maybe...


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## TheCaptKen (Mar 14, 2011)

I would be checking voltage on the starter before even thinking about buying another one. Yamaha wants to sell complete units so the replacement solenoid is almost as much the complete starter. If memory serves me, those starters are better than $600.


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## X-Shark (Oct 3, 2007)

> I checked connections and the cable on the output side of the battery switch was completely loose


My first thought is you have wing nuts on your batteries..... Don't you? 

The 2nd thought is you could / may have fried the alt on the motor due to this. It would be the same thing as turning the battery switch to OFF with the motor running.

That all would have to be determined by testing things.

Charge battery and load test it.

crank motor and test charging system.


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## chad403 (Apr 20, 2008)

Can you switch over your batteries with the battery switches?


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## 20cent (Mar 24, 2012)

I had the same problem with the same year/model engine. I would show up to the ramp, turn the key and hear the dreaded clicking. I would let it sit for a few minutes and magiclally it would work fine the rest of the day. Sometime i could go a week or two with no issues then the issue would pop back up again. 

I ended up changing the starter solenoid, bought new batteries since they were three years old (even though the load tested good), And changed out my battery crimps. 

So far I haven't had the issue pop back up, but occasionally the starter still seems to be sluggish when starting off one battery, if i switch to both on the battery switch it fires right up! This leads me to believe I have a resistance problem and another area you might want to check, the battery cables.

My battery cables are ten years old and the first 3-4 inches of the wiring had significant corrosion internal to the wiring. When I replaced the crimps I cut the bad sections off, however the cables probably need to be replaced. Just a thought on something else to check. Let us know the fix, I'm definitely interested!


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

What X Shark said Testing. A simple voltmeter can just about tell you everything.


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## Billybob+ (Jul 12, 2011)

I tried 3 different batteries...the original one, the one from the Port side (they're isolated so there not switchable to each other) and my truck battery that I know is hot.

Took the starter off today and it spun over freely with jumper cables using the solenoid (not having to bypass it) if you follow the solenoid wire it goes into a junction box and connects to what looks like a relay. WITHOUT the key switched all the way to crank the in side of that relay reads12.6v, which is what I'd suspect, and the out side (the side that energizes the solenoid) reads 0v

when I have someone hold the keyswitch to the crank position, the in side of that same relay drops to 3.5v and the out side (that should energize the solenoid) continues to read zero...I'm suspecting the relay but I
'm not sure that's even what it is and certainly don't understand why it needs a relay to energize the solenoid (which is effectively a relay)


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## TheCaptKen (Mar 14, 2011)

If the voltage drops that low, then it's a bad wire or connection. You did check the ground connection on the engine didn't you?


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## Billybob+ (Jul 12, 2011)

It sure acts like a grounding issue, I called myself checking all of the ground wires, as well as the hot wires and I found no corrosion to speak of and only the loose connection mentioned previously.


TheCaptKen said:


> If the voltage drops that low, then it's a bad wire or connection. You did check the ground connection on the engine didn't you?


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## delta dooler (Mar 6, 2008)

had about the same issue last week with my 200 Yammy, after an hour of troubleshooting with a voltmeter and ruling out solenoids, starter, it was determined that I had a bad ground wire between my 2 batteries, for some reason I wasnt getting enough voltage to the starter for it to start due to this, I replaced the ground wire between the batteries and she fired right up.


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## Billybob+ (Jul 12, 2011)

and the answer is..........................

long story short...a ground issue.

long version, after chasing everything on the hot side and with recommendations/encouragement on this forum, I started ohm-ing things out. found 60+/- ohms between the battery negative and the starter housing which is the starters ground. I'd checked the ground connection, where the battery wire connects to the engine block and it was tight and 
"looked" clean so when I saw the 60 ohms, I proceeded with disconnecting it and cleaning it. even disconnected, it didn't appear bad but the volt meter doesn't lie! when I cleaned it greased it good and reassembled it my ohms dropped down to about 1. still not ideal but certainly better than 60. thanks to all for the help


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## X-Shark (Oct 3, 2007)

Do you have Bare Copper ends on your Battery cables?

Nothing but corrosion!


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## Billybob+ (Jul 12, 2011)

My cables looked much better that the ones in the picture, they are aluminum or some other coating over the copper. it's not bare copper even after cleaning. they were just a dull grey (like Aluminum Oxide) but nothing heavy at all



X-Shark said:


> Do you have Bare Copper ends on your Battery cables?
> 
> Nothing but corrosion!


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## X-Shark (Oct 3, 2007)

Then they were tinned copper and that is what you want. Add some diaelectric grease also.


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