185 electrical issues

[Eric Shay]

First time posting here. Have a quick question for anyone smarter than me. I have a 1997 185 f/s with a 120 merc. Was on the water this weekend started fine went to take off motor died I had no power to the ignition switch or the trim button on the shifter or at the bow of the boat tilt and trim was working fine at the cowling. Fished for a while then all the electrical started working again started the motor put it in gear trim would not work on shifter turned off motor no power again finished fishing loaded boat using trolling motor after boat was on trailor all the tilt and trim and ignition started working fine.There was no water anywhere in the boat. Nothing was wet.Found a little corrosition on the battery. And found an exposed wire looks like a ground wire in the motor at what looks like a sylonoid. Is the battery the only thing that would effect both of these things at the same time? Thanks for any of your help.

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Sounds like a faulty wire or ground. Electrical gremlins are hard to find. Start with your batteries and after making sure they are good, re-do the connections at the terminals. Don't use the wing nuts, bolt them down with a little dialectic grease.

Then just trace wires looking for bad or exposed connections or wires. Another area to check is the kill switch wiring since the motor shuts down.



TOXIC

 

[Eric Shay]

Thanks for your reply toxic i did as you said didn't see any wires exposed or loose I went ahead and took apart and cleaned ever wire harness as well as cleaned the connections at the battery as well as at the ignition switch. It did seem that the wire harness under the cowling was loose and when unplugged it definetly duplicated the problem I was having. Is the grease on that wire harness the dialectric grease your refering to or because of its location would it be something different. Thanks again for eveyones help on this.

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Should be the same stuff.



TOXIC

 

[Eric Shay]

ok thanks