2006 24Ve, Audible alarm, Red dash light on, No engine power

[Bobgammon]

Guys,

I purchased a 2006 24Ve about 6 or 7 weeks ago, brought it home, and ran it the next day without any problems. Since then it has been in storage except for 2 weeks while it was at a local marina having a new steering cable installed.

Yesterday I took the boat out and had difficulty starting (acted like low battery or bad battery connection; turned ignition over and nothing). Checked both batteries with a volt meter and they both measured about 12.3 to 12.5 Volts.

Got the boat started and ran it for about 1.5 hours without shutting off to allow the batteries to sufficiently charge.

After running about an hour and a half I was at idle and an audible steady alarm came on. I applied the throttle and barely had any propulsion forward (almost none). My first thought was the transmission / V-drive was disengaged as a safety as a result of the alarm. However, I realized later that the engine was not revving so something else was going on. The only way to clear the problem was to shut the engine off and restart. Sometimes the boat would then function as normal for a while and allowed us to get to the boat ramp. Occasionally I had to shut down and restart the boat twice to clear the alarm. Fortunately by this time the batteries must have been sufficiently charged because I was able to shut off the boat and restart 8 to 10 times.

Got home and found some old threads on this forum that discussed the audible alarm and lack of propulsion as being related to battery voltage or possibly different voltage between the 2 batteries:

Some details:
1. This boat has a 2 battery system but I don't think it was stock. I think the previous owner had it installed.
2. The volt meter on the dash reads about 11 volts while at idle and increases to about 14 volts while running boat at 30 mph (is this normal?).
3. I had run the stereo some while doing some cleaning, etc. on the boat while I had it in storage so battery 2 certainly wasn't at full charge. Battery 1 may have lost some charge from sitting. I don't have an on-board charger but probably should look into on.
4. After I trailered the boat I checked the fluid level in the transmission and it was correct (I think it was the transmission; has the dipstick that you screw in). I didn't realize until reading last night that the V-drive is a separate item so I have not checked the fluid level in the V-drive yet.

So my question is does the audible alarm and lack of propulsion sound like a battery charge or battery connection issue? I would never have thought this to be the case until I was reading the forum last night.

2nd question - if the problem is battery charge related, why did it appear late in the day after the batteries were presumably fully charged from the alternator? Why would this problem not have surfaced early in the day when I am certain I had a lack of charge on the batteries?

Any advice you can offer would be appreciated. I am new to this type of boat so could use some guidance.

Thanks,

Clint

[TigeFamily]

Personally, I dont think this is a battery issue, but I am not an expert either.

What was your engine temp? Typically when boat starts to overheat, the alarms will go off and the boat will put itself in "limp mode" to protect itself. This keeps the engine from revving up and causing more damage which sounds like what you described.
If overheating, the impeller needs to be changed. This is something that many do yearly, some every other year depending on hours.
Check your belt too since they can also wear out and you have to remove belt to replace the impeller, so that is a good time to replace it and keep the old one as a spare.

Makes sense that oveheat would happen at idle too since engine is not revved up and impeller is not pulling as much water thru engine to cool it. If impeller was not creating a tight seal, it may pull enough water at higher rpm to cool engine, but not enough at low rpm or idle. If impeller comes out and looks decent, as in not torn, etc....likely just worn out since the vanes on impeller can take a "set" and become brittle when sitting over winter without water or use. Guessing this is likely to be your issue.

You should get a 2 bank charger/maintainer installed to keep batteries topped off, alternator will not keep up with them and if maintained right they will last much longer than if you do not keep them topped off. Also, pop the caps if wet cell batteries and check water level. If low, they wont charge right. Use distilled water to top off.

Check engine oil too. Some people do it once per year, I do it every 50hrs, cheap insurance due to the strain put on engine adding ballast since I surf almost exclusively.

[Bobgammon]

Thanks for the feedback. I should have mentioned that the water temp (about 175F) and oil temp were both as expected so nothing out of the ordinary there. Engine oil level was good and I did top the batteries off several weeks ago so I think all is good with those. I totally agree on the charger and am looking into getting that added.

[tombugg]

I had this issue on my 05 24V and it was a plug in the wiring under the dash (Not fully connected). I had to cut all of the zip ties out and I went through every connection. Mine was intermittent but would sometimes not start unless I moved the wires around.

Something to check anyways...

Tom