Best way to start a motor that has been sitting for a while

[wingtime]

yeah checked that out.  This one is a DPDT type that when tripped it grounds the motor killing it and it opens preventing the starter to engage..  so without it in place it wont even crank.  I undid a bunch of zip ties on the engine wiring searching for a chewed wire, unplugged any plugs & connectors I found and sprayed them with contact cleaner...  nothing glaring was found..  in fact other than some crud on top of things all the connections were clean and had dielectric grease on them..  I have a wiring diagram for the boat and motor here at home (the boat is at a buddies house up in Tarpon).. sO I wll look that over and start testing it tomorrow.  I don't have a volt meter with a DVA or whatever it is I need to check the stator etc.

[fitz73222]

Wingtime,

I'm assuming it has the standard wire harness plug. Disconnect the plug and jump the starter and see if she has spark then. This will isolate a bad key switch or grounded wire in the harness. Then we can move to the stator.

[wingtime]

Yup it has the standard Mercury round wire harness plug.  Your on the same track as I am.  I planned on either disconnecting the black/yellow wire or isolating the engine from the boat harness by jumping it..  and then testing the stator next.  I doubt both switch boxes are bad.  The marine Dr. over on http://www.themarinedoctor.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=MM site said in his experience with these motors the stator is the common failure point.  I downloaded the service manual so I have the wire diagram.

[fitz73222]

Does your engine have the new style ignition that had eliminated the switchboxes and the conventional coils? They were replaced with coil/amplifier/sudo switchbox on each plug? Everything else changed over to the new style by 2000. Maybe V6's came later. I just ran into random no fire after running for an hour or so on my port 115. After complete check of everything the root cause turned out to be a keyswitch that was heating up and shorting from internal water damage. Ran her for three hours yesterday on the ICW and came back with a clean bill of health.

[wingtime]

Mine has the switchboxes and the TKS ecm.  (Turn key starting).   I started by unplugging the blk/ylw kill wire from the main harness and I had spark!  I connected it back and disconnected it from one of the switch boxes and I had week spark...  changed to other with box... no spark..  disconnected from main harness no spark...   so I,m back to no spark...  tested stator and trigger for resistance according to fsm and they are dead on....  

[wingtime]

I picked up a DVA meter so I can properly troubleshoot the ignition system on this thing.  Since I am getting no spark on ANY cylinders I have been told it is likely a bad stator and they commonly fail on this model motor.  So with the service manual in hand and my DVA tester I start testing the stator...  Blue wire to ground... 260 volts.. good.. and so on.. Of course all the voltages are within spec.  Darn I thought this was gonna be easy...  back to square one..  I read the FSM and decide to start troubleshooting at the beginning.. It says to check the voltages at the coils..  I doubt it will solve anything there but OK...  I hook the alligator clip of the negative DVA prob to the coil...  the other is a prob and I have to hold it....  HMMMM wait a moment  I'm alone and can't reach the start button while holding the prob on the coil...    I don't have my remote starter button with me either...  so I guess I'll just short the starter solenoid with a screw driver...  So I short it..  it cranks.. and WAIT DID THAT JUST TRY TO FIRE?  oh come on...  so I hook up the fuel and water and try it with the screwdriver again....  It fires up on the second try...  SON OF A #$@#!  I shut it down with the kill switch...  try to start it with the dash start button... it cranks but no fire....  try the screwdriver... fires right up!  OH COME ON!   The thing runs!  the tach does not work..  but it dances when I turn the power key on and off...  also it seemed to speed up a bit...  could have been air getting in the fuel..   Then it decided to start using the start button...  weird..  here's some videos...  nice N smoky !

http://www.youtube.com/user/wingtimeRV7?feature=mhee#p/u/1/dWvwoaWNL90

http://www.youtube.com/user/wingtimeRV7?feature=mhee#p/u/0/8Jo5PGBFKmQ

[fitz73222]

Sounds like replace the keyswitch/starter button as we talked about earlier. I just went through this with my starboard 115 Merc and they keyswitch was the culprit.

[gran398]

Thats exactly what the mechanic in SC did with Lew's 175 Evinrude....jumped the starter with a pair of pliers, fired right up, ran great.

Bad keyswitch.

[pete]

nice work wing!