[bassman909]

OK, I need some help. I have a 21 ft Seaswirl with a Johnson 130 outboard. I was out fishing on Saturday, everything was fine. I stopped on the way in to make a few casts, and when I went to start up again, nothing. I eventually had to get a tow from SeaTow. (Thank God for tow insurance). I can't figure out what is wrong. I get absolutly nothing when I try to start the motor. All of the other electrical systems are fine. I don't believe it is the starter, or the batteries, nothing happens at all when I turn the key (no clicking of the starter, just silence). All of the wireing looks fine, I checked the connections to the battery, and they are fine. My guess is either a simple loose wire that I haven't found, or possible a problem with the shifter.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[B.Attitude]

Hmmm...

Bassman,
First I would check the grounds,then the key switch and then the safety lanyard.Try jumping out the ignition and go straight to the starter.
paulie

 

[614097]

Sounds like a break in the wiring harness. I had a similar problem 3 years ago. A marine mechanic helped narrow down the problem area, and then gave me the option of letting them continue the search (at $60 per hour - or whatever they get), or I could look for it myself. They said to look for a loose wire & sure enough I found it. The original harness had to be spliced when the engine was replaced. One of the connections became corroded & that was the prob.

Good luck,

Steve

 

[621938]

bassman, get into it!

bassman, get on it. you have some trouble shooting to do

you need a test light, connunity tester, some basic wireing stuff like crimp connectors, liquid elecrtic tape, electric tape, cable ties, ***** or nippers, some jury rigged jumpers of alligator clips and 12 guage wire

steve and b are correct. but i would start by checking ground at motor with conntunity tester and go from there, check from battery out with connunity tester, test light and or jumpers

neg and pos battery post to cable clamp

cable clamp to motor ground

pos wire from clamp to starter post

and on and on till you find a fault and correct

go up to key assembly ...remove and check with test light or jumpers , see if you get her to kick. faulty key assembly happens

while your doing it correct any defects and corroded conectors you see that may cause future problems

if everything else works like you say, your really just looking at the starting circut. so follow that out from the all important battery after checking ground is ok, of course.

follow the starting circut and from checking useing test light and jumpers figure if your getting juice to starter when you turn key

worst case your needing to replace starter or easy is bad wire somewhere or your key assembly is shot

i like figureing this stuff out in the middle of a channel in 4 ft swells!

have fun

dino

 

[seaslug44]

I agree that you should save your money and troubleshoot first. Many OMC engines also have ignition fuses. You should remove the hood and check any fuses that you see wired to the engine. Keep in mind that if it is a blown fuse, it means that there is a short somewhere.

I ran into the same situation once with a 40 horse Johnson. Two of the wires on the tach were crossed. It blew the fuse under the hood. Everything else worked.

Another time a short at the fuse box blew a fuse on my friend's boat. The fuse was right at the battery switch. In that case the entire boat lost power.

A third time a neighbor did the same as you; he shut down to fish and then had zero power to the starter. In his situation it was nothing more than a dirty battery terminal. Everything else was able to draw power but for some reason the engine was dead without the good connection at the terminals.

I'm a strong believer that when you go from power to zero power in a matter of minutes that it is nothing more than a blown fuse.

 

[bassman909]

Thanks for the help so far guys. I have checked all of the fuses I could find. I did find one that was blown, and replaced it (and the fuse housing itself bacause it was pretty corroded). I have not done a continuity check rsylnny,but, I will a next step.
Funny though, as I mentioned yesterday, I think it may have someting to do with the shifter. I was able to get some power to the engine by moving the shifter into Foward. Wierd.
Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the advise so far, I knew I could count on your guys.

 

[621938]

good , were on to something

while holding key in start position, move shifter thru it's range in the normal area of netural, kind of wave it over the area a few times while holding key

there is probally some sort of netural lock out device in shifter to prevent starting in gear

perhaps netural safety switch is out of adjustment, popped out of it's place or needs replacement

perhaps the next order of business is to pop the shifter assembly cover open and eyeball the inards. a liberal wd-40 spray around the switches and wires and grease the cable ends/control handle

give a good look to whatever the lock out feature is and perhaps even jumper out the wires to the lock out and attempt to start with key

this is on the new info that your got something while jiggleing the control lever

let us know
dino

 

[Hipshot]

FUSES

BASSMAN,
To add to Doctorfishes post, don't just check the fuses, clean the fuse holders. I had this problem with my I/O. The ignition fuse was good, but the holder wasent corroded, just dirty. Clean the fuse(or replace and clean the fuse holder!

 

[seaslug44]

I agree with Roslynny;

You've isolated the problem.

There is a nuetral safety cutoff switch in every OMC shifter that prevents the motor from being started while in gear. Start with the good inspection/cleaning and take it from there.

 

[bassman909]

Guess what guys, it was the neutral safety switch! Boat is working fine, goin' fishing now. Thanks to DoctorFish, and rsylnny for all your help. I hope I can repay the favor.

 

[seaslug44]

You are VERY welcome!

 

[621938]

No Problem

yeah, glad you did it u self. just a note of reference. cars and trucks got netch safety switches also. good to know about them little dohickeys

 

[happyhrs]

enguine probs

I would check the lanyard cut off device, & make sure it is in neutral try turning the key & rockin the shift lever back & forth. I was once towed back to captree from FI inlet at night only to find out that my cut off lanyard was off...