[DavidB]

I have had an electrical issue over the past few months that I believe has been repaired, but I am wondering of there is anyone else that has had a similar problem.

It started as a low voltage alarm on my starboard IPS engine when I started it cold.  The voltage would drop down to 8 volts on the EVC screen.  The starter seemed sluggish as compared to the port engine.  The batteries were over 2yrs old and after speaking with my mechanic, I decided to replace them as the first step.  There was some improvement in the starting and no alarms.  It still seemed somewhat sluggish compared to the port side. I took the boat out on vacation and 20 minutes into the trip, I again got a low voltage alarm while running.  The alarm was on the Volvo EVC screen as well as on the Raymarine autopilot.  The autopilot said that I had no IPS and no autopilot.  I did have IPS steering and when I stopped the boat I had a fully functional IPS joystick.  I shut down the engines and re-started the engines.  In a few minutes I got the same low voltage alarm and the engines went into safety mode.  Shut down again, re-started the engines, and went back home slowly.  I had a marine electrician check out my entire electrical system and found no issues at the dock (battery charger, batteries,  and alternator all good with no significant voltage drops).  I had a Volvo mechanic come out with the vodia to read all the faults.  They were all miscellaneous voltage drops on the starboard side, but did not identify a failing part.  He decided to check and clean every electrical connection to make sure that there was good contacts.  He found a loose connection on the starter that could not be removed or tightened because it was spinning internally.  I replaced the starter and the engine starts right up with no alarms and with 3hrs of run time have had no issues.  I am assuming the bad starter connection led to a lose of ground for the entire engine and caused the faults while underway due to vibration.  Anyone have anything similar or any suggestions as to the next step if it happens again ?

[Sans Peur]

Sounds like the terminal stud on the starter broke internally and was probably barely making a connection. I bet if you had felt the solenoid during starting it would be red hot. After it started there would be resistance from the heated connection consequently dropping the voltage going back to the batteries and systems.

It happens, rarely, but it happens. I would not sweat it to much. Max I would do is maybe buy a rebuilt starter and carry it on board as a spare. But i sometimes am far away from reliable mechanics and parts so I go a little over on carrying replacement stuff.