Electrical Problem Perko battery selector

[Silver Orcas]

CDory Team,

Just put our 2008 22' CDory in for the season and have an electrical problem.
Perko 2 battery selector switch was intermittent so I cycled it about 10 times then it worked. About 30 minutes into cruse engine stopped cold. Quick restart ran for 2 hours stopped for lunch. The CB radio stopped working, the 5AMP fuse had blown which I replaced and it worked. Tried to restart the boat and only position 1 on the switch would yield power nothing on ALL or 2. So we motored 30 minutes home on 1 battery. Could the switch be bad or is my #2 battery not charged or bad?
TKS, Silver Orcas

[thataway]

You can check the switch with your digital volt meter (I assume that you have one, if not, this is a good time to buy one). If you have not used a multimeter, here is a simple explanation:
http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/cal/PDF/MultimeterUse.pdf
First measure the battery voltage from the battery terminals: should be over 12.2 volts--preferably 12.6 volts. If the battery is low, then have it load tested, I would put the battery on a good charger for 24 hours before load testing.

If the battery is OK, then turn the switch so that battery is connected. Check the output terminal of the switch to ground (or a negative battery terminal)--if it reads the same as the battery--then it is OK. If there is no or low voltage the switch as bad. You can also check for continuity when the batteries are disconnected by putting the DVM on resistance, Continuity or Ohms (symbol greek letter Omega). It should read 0.000 if the battery switch is good. If it reads OL, then the battery switch is open, and if you have closed it--it is no good. If your meter had a continuity setting, there will be a beep if the circuit is complete--that is the battery switch closes contacts.

The switches can go bad.

[BrentB]

I will add m2cw

It is a good time to remove battery connections and clean with sand paper each connection, and reinstall. If using wing nuts on the battery, remove and replace nut or nylon lock nut with washers and apply thin coat of dielectric grease. On the engine side, clean and re install pos and neg battey cables and tighten nuts. When battery is fully charged, check the voltage and check the battery age and liquid levels on wet cell batteries

Battery switch can fail and inexpensive, consider replacing with a VSR combo switch.