Hiccup with a 2 stroke Yamaha

[bondobill]

Engine is a 97 200 SW2 carbed  engine. Has 140 hours on a factory new power head.
Never had a bit of trouble with it till this morn.
She started up just fine at the dock this morn..after about a 40 minute run to our fishing spot I throttle down and put her in neutral, did not turn her off. Walked to the stern to fire up kicker and the main engine just  shut down on its own,,,no sputter, no spitter, just like someone turned the damn key off  
Hit the key to try to start her and she turned over fine but wouldn't fire. I pulled the lanyard and reinstalled it and it still wouldn't fire. I kinda ruled out a fuel problem cause the kicker fired up just fine and the 200 showed no syptoms what so ever before it died.
This is where I kinda screwed up...I popped the hood on her and fiddled around with the harness connections under the hood, then I went forward and fiddled with the connections from the ignition switch on the dash.
Hit the key and she fired right up
Ran like a top the rest of the day..
So where to I go from here ?  The ignition switch on the helm is 25 years old..could that be the problem ?

Sure wished I would have tried starting her after wiggling each individual wire   .

[gran398]

Bill, sounds like the key switch.

[Capt. Bob]

Could be.
Similar thing happened on my 115 Johnson. Was just about to dock after a long ride in and shifted into neutral. She idled fine as the momentum carried us to the dock but then just quit. I never restarted the motor until I got home and was going to flush her out. Dead as a door nail. Traced the power to the switch but none on the start side. Dealer had a box full of them.  
Is yours exposed to the elements from time to time?

[seabob4]

Check the condition of the white wire on the back side of the switch.  This is the engine stop circuit on Yams, both on your key switch and your kill switch.  A good possibility, through years of whatever, it came in contact (it most likely is a ground) with the "run" circuit, grounding the coils and killing the motor...

[bondobill]

Thanks guys
I'll check out that white wire when I get a chance.
Now that I think about it the symptoms are close to the same that I had on a prior kicker motor
It had died and refused to start until I disconnected the kill switch.

[bondobill]

I decided to bring the boat to a shop and have the motor serviced. Been doing the easy stuff my self but when it come to carbs, spark and electrical gremlins I leave that to someone else

Besides, trying to get my spring time yard work, yearly maintenance to outside of the house and trying to get the engine back in my sons goat I ain't got time for chit all.

I told the shop to check out why my manual switch to bilge pump wasn't working...pump works fine off the float switch.
Got a call from shop on Friday, mech said there is a open circuit somewhere between the switch and pump. He seems to think it may be related to the engine shutting down on it own
He also had a shopping list of things the 200 needs, none major tho

The electrical issues have me a little concerned....at a shop rate of $110 per hour, I be hoping  he finds it quick.
 
Bill

[seabob4]

I decided to bring the boat to a shop and have the motor serviced. Been doing the easy stuff my self but when it come to carbs, spark and electrical gremlins I leave that to someone else

Besides, trying to get my spring time yard work, yearly maintenance to outside of the house and trying to get the engine back in my sons goat I ain't got time for chit all.

I told the shop to check out why my manual switch to bilge pump wasn't working...pump works fine off the float switch.
Got a call from shop on Friday, mech said there is a open circuit somewhere between the switch and pump. He seems to think it may be related to the engine shutting down on it own
He also had a shopping list of things the 200 needs, none major tho

The electrical issues have me a little concerned....at a shop rate of $110 per hour, I be hoping  he finds it quick.
 
Bill

No no, Bill.  The engine's electricals and the boat's electricals are 2 distinctly separate systems.  Your mechanic should know this...

[bondobill]

The reason he thinks they might be related is all the wiring including the harness for the 200 run down the starboard side under the cap on the gunnel
His thought was that maybe a screw or something has caused chaffing to the wires
My guess  is they are not related but he needs to find the bad spot for the bilge wiring anyway, maybe we will get lucky.
Probably be a lot cheaper to just run a new wire and abandon the old one for the bilge pump but then I still need to address the issue with the 200

[seabob4]

I gotcha.

[bondobill]

After nearly 7 weeks at the shop I got the old girl back.  
Motor got a 200 hour service along with a bunch of other little things that add up to a bunch of cash at a shop rate of $110 a hour.
The bill on the engine service was minor compared to the bill on cleaning up a few electrical issues.  
Shop ended up pulling the console and  rewired the cluster #%&* back there.
I got lights on my Yamaha gauges now, had the boat since 1990, never realized the gauges had lights  
My old glass tube type fuse panel is gone
They replaced all the old push pull switches on the console, now I got a fancy  new rocker switch panel 8)
They ended up rewiring dang near the entire boat.

Checked her out this last weekend and I be damned.... everything works.    


Bill

[Georgie]

Welcome to the 2000's, Bill!  

Sounds great!

[gran398]

Good deal! Now you can go on romantic sunset cruises    

[slvrlng]

7 weeks at the shop! At least now I don't feel too bad about how long my recore the console and re-rig my boat is taking.  LOL!!!!

[bondobill]

Good deal! Now you can go on romantic sunset cruises    

At my age bro....I'd rather go fishing  
The only thing that bothered me about the repairs taking so long was the old girl was sitting outside the entire time. She has never sat out side for more then a week at a time. It took a bit of cleaning up to get rid of the black mildew streaks, luckily I had waxed it right before I brought it in.
I got to say the shop did a nice job of bringing her into the 21st century..... or are we in the 22nd century now.  

Bill

[gran398]

The following is not a derail. It is added value in relation to romance/fishing:


A young man applies for a job at a retail Superstore. The place is a combination Bass Pro/Super Walmart/ Ford dealership all rolled into one.

The sales manager asks if he has sales experience. The kid says no, but he is a quick learner. The manager likes his energy and enthusiasm, so he's hired.

Next day he reports to work. The following morning the sales manager asks how he did.

"Pretty good" says the kid. I only had one customer, but he spent $237, 849.00.

The sales manager is flabbergasted!!  How in the world he says, tell me what happened!!

The kid says, well a man comes in, he'd never been fishing. So I sold him some fishing rods, tackle, tackle box, clothes, waders, ice chests, fly gear, spinning gear, baitcasting stuff, etc. Then he asks me about boats, so  I sold him a 26 footer with twins. The he asked me if his car would tow it, I said no, you're gonna need a truck. So I sold him an F-350 duelly.

The sales manager is beside himself with disbelief. This kid is the best salesman he's ever seen. "How in the world did you do it?" he asks.

"Well the gentleman came in and said his wife had sent him in for a box of Tampax, where could he find them?"

And I said "With all due respect sir, you should go fishing."