Trojan Boat Forum

My port engine had been over heating (turned out to be a stuck thermostat) but in th process of changing the impellors and testing it I ran behind my house for bit until the temps climbed to where I wasn't comfortable, so I shut both mains down and went down to look for any water leaks anywhere since it was pressured up. I went to start the Stbd main and limp back to my dock on one engine, but the wiring conecting to the starter had worked loose and overheated, causing the wire to melt off the starter. Now I was dead in the water (with no beverage to relax with as this was a trouble shooting trip not a play one.) After it cooled off, i limped home on my overheating engine and put it away. I worked on the overheated engine a few days later, starting and stoping her in the slip, and finally changed the thermostat to fix it. After it weas replaced, i went to start it, and all i got was a click. no turn. I rewired the wiring to the Stbd starter (other main) and when starting it only a click, no turn. Troubleshooting found a bad soenoid on the port starter and a bad starter completely on the stbd. I replaced them and they start and run fine. Now, if i start the port engine, it fires off the stbd and the port at the same time. THe stbd only starts the stbd as designed. When I engage the emergency start switch, both engines immediatly fire off at the same time without me pressing their respective start buttons. I don't know what the heck is going on. the only difference (that I see) is that i put on a gear reduction start on the stbd, but that should not be any different that a standard starter as far as wiring goes... any ideas from the group?

The same thing happened to me. Both starters ran at the same time. Drove me nuts. It turned out to be a little gizmo on the stbd side behind the sliding door beside the helm. The wires were in line with the starter solenoids. Don't have a clue what they were for but when I unhooked them everything went back to normal. Possibly could be something to do with the emergency start system. , don't know. If I get a chance I'll take a picture of the little bugger. Maybe you have something like it somewhere on your boat.

Hmmm... I'll look through the wiring diagram again and see if I can see that or in the engine room and look for it. Do you know if your emergency start system work after you disconnected those wires? I have never had to use it but i do like the idea of it....

I don't know if the emergency start works or not, I've never tried it. After all the starter and battery problems taking place I put in two marine continuous duty solenoids between the house batteries and the engine batteries so when either engine, or both, are running they charge all batteries and when I shut the engines down the house batteries disconnect from the engine batteries so if I run my house batteries dead I still have full engine batteries. I haven't had battery problems since and have not had to try the emergency start buttons.