Tower speakers only work when engine shut off??? '08 Z1

[philwsailz]

If my assumptions are right and you have a bad regulator you WILL damage other stuff on the boat. It may not be damaged yet, but you owe it to yourself to figure out what is going on before something else goes wrong. A stereo not working is a pain, but a boat burned to the waterline due to a melted and shorted cable is kinda pricey... Besides being dangerous and potentially life-threatening.

I saw another boat on fire last Saturday. That makes three now I have seen. I am not implying they had a bad regulator, only that a boat fire is a scary thing. You have identified symptoms of a problem. You owe it to yourself, your passengers, your friends and your family; fix the problem.

Phil
Kicker

[Frosty_Power]

If my assumptions are right and you have a bad regulator you WILL damage other stuff on the boat. It may not be damaged yet, but you owe it to yourself to figure out what is going on before something else goes wrong. A stereo not working is a pain, but a boat burned to the waterline due to a melted and shorted cable is kinda pricey... Besides being dangerous and potentially life-threatening.

I saw another boat on fire last Saturday. That makes three now I have seen. I am not implying they had a bad regulator, only that a boat fire is a scary thing. You have identified symptoms of a problem. You owe it to yourself, your passengers, your friends and your family; fix the problem.

Phil
Kicker

Thanks Phil! That is a great bit of advise to have. Safety first as always!!! I will take pics tonight and if I cannot diagnose issue, it's going in the shop next week before my trip!

[philwsailz]

Pics? You need to take voltmeter readings...

When was the last time you had the boat in the water? IF you had a helper, you could fire up the boat, real quick, dry, assuming it had been in the water recently and that the impeller might still be wet.
Have the voltmeter ready to go, set to measure DC voltage, and with the leads ALREADY on the + and - terminals of the amp. Start the boat, let it run for 5 seconds or so, and tell us what the voltage went to on the meter. Don't run the boat for minutes, run it for seconds. You should know instantly, with not enoug time running to smoke the water pump.

Phil
Kicker

[Frosty_Power]

Pics? You need to take voltmeter readings...

When was the last time you had the boat in the water? IF you had a helper, you could fire up the boat, real quick, dry, assuming it had been in the water recently and that the impeller might still be wet.
Have the voltmeter ready to go, set to measure DC voltage, and with the leads ALREADY on the + and - terminals of the amp. Start the boat, let it run for 5 seconds or so, and tell us what the voltage went to on the meter. Don't run the boat for minutes, run it for seconds. You should know instantly, with not enoug time running to smoke the water pump.

Phil
Kicker

Ah yes....pics of the wiring setup and I am picking up a volt meter on my way home to get the readings. Will post updates shortly! Thank you!!!!

[Frosty_Power]

Just an update guys....spent all night last night trying to diagnose the problem and actually got a friend of mine to help me out. Spent hours trying to look for the issue testing every wire and checking out all the fuses. Noticed my cigarette lighter in glove box didn't work and power to the heater switch wasn't working either. No power was getting to them. I looked behind the battery box and sure enough, one cable was free and not plugged in. I plugged it back in and every now works perfect. Tested all the voltage and all is good!!! Looks like the previous owner forgot to plug that in when he charged the batteries before I took possession. Thanks for your help chpthril and philwsailz!!!

Funny thing, cable was also marked "1" with a marker and it took us forever to figure out if this was to go on positive or negative terminal so after diagnosing everything we realized it was for the negative terminal, then it struck me that it wasn't labelled "1" for battery 1, I was reading it sideways, it was labelled "-" for negative. Argh...oh well problem solved and best of all, I'm happy to cancel my appointment at my dealer!!!

Thanks again!!!