optimax question
 

long story short, last Sunday coming in low voltage alarm goes off and starts shutting the motor down, pull into spicers, run and get a spair battery from the camp, it did not come right off a charger but showed 12 volt on a meter, cranked right up and ran fine back to the camp, asked a friend to crank it yesterday before I drive down from shreveport, won't fire but turns over fine, checked the fuel sqweeze bubble there's fuel, grabbed the nuts on the battery to exchange it and it's red hot, the negative pole being the hottest. Is this one of those fuse problems that protect the computer from low voltage? Anyhelp or advice would be greatly appreciated. It's really hard getting things fixed 200 miles away. :pissed:

What year and horsepower?

2006 200hp

I was hoping to get a response from the Wise and all Knowing man of outboards

When the alarm went off.....was it a solid horn or a intermitting beep?

Also,with the key on and the motor not running see if you get four beeps every 2 mins. If so it is a low voltage problem for sure. If you got a solid horn while the motor was running it could be a overheat alarm as well.

intermittent beeping, first one beep, and nothing on the monitor, later beep with showing low voltage , later more constant beep when the rpms would go up.

Capt Jared was with me, we were scrolling thru the mode button on the monitor all other systems / pressures / temps appeared normal

Gotcha,when you spin it over does it spin over like normal or is it slow? Also,does the horn beep when you turn the key to the on position?

It could be something as simple as a burnt fuse under the cowl like you mentioned. It is possible the alternator is going out but that does not happen often on a optimax.

I just remembered one I worked on a while back had bad kill switch and caused the same problem. Hate to say it but it could be several things just gotta have someone troubleshoot it.

I'm in Shreveport now, but if I remember right, it always beeps once when you turn the key to the on position, not sure about the spin, Capt Jared was relaying this info to me yesterday, he was going to take it out before I came down today. It seems to me it always spin slow the first turn or maybe two turns then spins normal, It is a 2006 but was put in service 2008. As soon as he gets off the lake I'll ask him about the beeps and how its spinning.

Yes it should beep one time at key up to let you know the horn is working. Check the fuses under the cowl first and go from there.

Will do, I'll keep you posted on what we find, the help is greatly appreciated.

Anytime,let me know what you find.

yeah this is a common problem for optimax motors. best thing to do is put your boat in the water, take it out a lil ways from the launch, take a wrench and unbolt the motor and drop it right there and go to the yamaha dealership. :D

LOL I prefer yamaha myself,but they all break. I talked to my podna at trails yamaha and the new sho's are burning powerheads left and right.

Just out of curiosity, the battery is over 1000 cranking amps right? My owner's manuel reccomends this.

Ronnie

If the battery is getting hot, could be a bad cell in battery or loose/corroded connections at battery.

You ara correct Mr. Trabeck:grinpimp:

???

^^I think he was refering to your post stating that all name brands will have problems.