Hit and miss juice to starter

quadzillabill · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2012 10:08 pm

My 97 H200 w/ 5.7 GLi is a great boat, but it started to really annoy me the last two weeks.

It acts electrically as if its not in neutral (even though it is) when I try to start it. Turn the key and get nothing. A few weeks ago a little fiddling with it from forward to reverse and I'd get it to start in 15 seconds. Saturday at the launch it took me 5 minutes. That's not cool at a busy ramp and not reassuring at all. It continued all day.

I'm assuming there is a bad switch somewhere, but where should I start looking? Is there a switch on both the controls and motor in addition to the dead-man switch? I can't say that its very consistent as to when it decides to start vs. when it doesn't.

I've got two big trips scheduled in August and don't want this hanging over my head, so any advice on troubleshooting would be appreciated.

Q

Jafo4U · **Joined:** Wed Jun 22, 2011 2:33 am **Posts:** 1026

Check for any corrosion behind the switch assembly where the key is my mechanic told me to watch that area closely.

quadzillabill · **Posted:** Wed Aug 01, 2012 6:22 am

Jafo4U wrote:

Check for any corrosion behind the switch assembly where the key is my mechanic told me to watch that area closely.

I've taken to just holding the key in the start position while I wiggle the other controls which I think could be responsible. I'll take a look at the key itself, too. Thanks.

LouC · **Posted:** Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:10 am

There are a couple of possibilities, if you find that it consistently starts when you jiggle the throttle lever to make sure it's in neutral, then it's likely to be the neutral safety switch in the throttle control. If it isn't that, then there are a few other areas to check, one all the batt connections including grounds, the starter solenoid connections, and the slave solenoid (or assist solenoid as it is called). On Iboats.com there is a section in the I/O forums that details how to check the starting system in your boat. A couple of years ago I had a rusty starter solenoid issue that made it do the same thing, it would just click instead of crank over about 1 in 10 starts. I replaced the solenoid for $30 at the end of the season. On some engines, watch out for a small drip of water on the solenoid from the manifold drain, on OMC 4.3s the drain is right over the starter.

pet575 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 01, 2012 12:01 pm

I would also verify that the shift cable is working correctly and is not in need of adjustment. If it is out of adjustment or bad, it could be failing to shift out of gear and thus preventing a start. You would never know it at the helm.

quadzillabill · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:31 pm

I messed around and couldn't see anything obviously wrong. Needed the local shop to unsinstall/reinstall my creeping windshield that's been worrying me, so I had them take a look at the linkage while they had it. Started every time. :oops:

They did let me know how to bypass the switch if I get in a bind and it won't start. Wouldn't want it that way for safety purposes, though.

ric · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 7:00 pm

My H180 would do that. It was corroded wires on the starter switch at first, i'd reach around wiggle them and all would be fine. I got around to cleaning the terminals (crappy blade connectors) and that solved it for a while. I was going to replace them with gold plated ones and a new starter switch but I sold the boat beforehand

www.iFourWinns.com

Hit and miss juice to starter

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