I am having a problem starting the Universal engine on my Ericson 34. It seems like I just don’t have enough battery power to start it effectively. I have checked and replaced the batteries, and had the starter and solenoid checked over. I just don’t know what the problem could be. I appreciate any help you can give me.
Tom Geurts
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Dear Tom,
It sounds like you have checked the basic parts in the system—you have good battery power and the starter/solenoid are fine.
Your problem likely lies in the connection between the start switch and the starter solenoid. The wiring harness in your boat uses a 16-gauge wire between the start switch and the solenoid, and this size is just not big enough. You need to increase this to a 10-gauge wire.
In the standard wiring harness this is a yellow-red wire, wire No. 3 if your labels are intact and readable. You’ll want to replace this small wire with a larger No. 10 wire. Be sure to move the fuse holder and 20-amp fuse (or just get a new one) from the yellow-red wire over to your new wire.
This should supply enough extra power to allow the solenoid to work much better.
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written by Jim Maroldo , November 16, 2010
Bob's right on the money with this one! When we traded up to our Morgan 28OI with universal M20 engine, she had this very same issue. Reading the voltage drop from battery to solenoid terminals while holding the 'START' button down showed us the problem immediately. Drilling down, we found the inline fuse holder to be the major culprit. Changing the fuse to a lug-type, along with heavier-gauge wire, has completely solved the problem. Even if the battery is too low to reliably crank the ngine, there is still enough voltage to kick in the starter solenoid.
BTW, the mfr of Universal has a tech bulletin regarding this...
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