Starter Won't Stop

[Briankinley2004]

Thanks Robert. I will check my good bank and compare to start with.

[Briankinley2004]

I think this one is fixed for now and I may be spared a bank of batteries for some more time. I took the solenoid off and apart (got to love 80's stuff you can work on). There is a metal disc that contacts the two main lugs from battery cable too starter. It was stuck to the lugs. Apparently when I started the engine while the wife was running the windlass the voltage drop caused this. This was causing the starter to run until the battery was completely drained. This explains why the battery would never charge with engine and charger going but when I shut off everything at dock it would charge. I couldn't hear the starter running while the engine was going and by the time I shut engine off the battery was so dead the starter (and everything else 32 volt) had quit.

Took a file and cleaned the contact surfaces up and put a light coat of grease on things. Started her up and now the voltage drops on meter to 30volts or so then rises back to 36 when alternator is excited. Before it would slowly drop to below 24 volts in less than 5 minutes and be so dead the parallel switch wouldn't restart the engine. In fact I would have to use the parallel switch just to get the shut down solenoid to work. Next time I see the voltage dropping like that I am going to immediately turn the engine Perko off so the house batteries stay charged then buy a new solenoid.

[wpc691]

That solenoid is likely to be good for a long time after your fix. Not sure I would ever have thought of windlass voltage drop causing high current welding at the solenoid contactor plate - good catch.