96 Adventure Yam 225 dual battery one dying.

[john90290]

I've a perko switch wired per the instructions to the yam 225. New batteries. I can run on one for about 20 minutes then it dies. All gauges go out, no radio, nothing. I go to two and it runs all day. Why would engine charge two and not one. All connections checked and rechecked. Cleaned up all corrosion behind switch. Could I have a bad switch? Seems unlikely, they are pretty simple. Not sure if its a kill switch issue and if so, why does it not happen when running on battery two?

If anyone's had and similar issues please chime in.

Happy boating!

John

 

[wspitler]

Could be a bad battery, but not likely. Check voltage at the battery itself when each is selected to see if that battery is being charged. Should be 13.5 to 14.5 or so. If low on #1 it's not being charged. If both are being charged, I'd switch battery positions and see if the problems goes from #1 to #2. Sounds to me like the charging wire from the motor could be hooked up to the #2 position on the switch instead of the main bus. If you have command link you can read charging voltage through that.

 

[john90290]

Thanks for the leads. I ended up checking the wiring and was about to tear into it and figured I'd apply a little Occam's razor and see what the simplest most elegant solution would be. I started switching from off to 1 and back and noticed a sweet spot on the number 1 battery where it worked fine, If i moved it a bit to either side it all went dead - what i initially thought was the battery draining/dying. Looking back, the battery "died" when we left the harbor and were getting up on plane so that must have rocked it to the dead spot in the switch. Replaced the switch went for a test drive and works great.

I'd ruled out the switch as the components are sealed and figured "these things never go bad." That ASSumption was my downfall.

Hope this helps someone out there.

-John

 

[wspitler]

I sure wouldn't have bet on the switch being bad! Good find!