25HP Mercury Bigfoot won't start in river current

[TWAR]

I ran into an unexpected issue over the weekend. I was on a shallow river and stopped the outboard to walk the boat through a shallow section. After getting through it I lowered it and went to start it and no dice. The boat was being held in position in the front by a helper in some current. I was going to start the boat while he held it, then once started he would hop in so I could put it in gear and go. It was in neutral, but the prop was spinning due to being in moving river current. I tried shifting it to make sure it was in neutral and when i went into forward the current locked up the prop and I couldn't shift it out of forward into neutral. After a few tries and figuring the current was the issue, I raised the prop out of the water, started it, and lowered it back in and all was well.

We had to walk two shallow sections and it did it both times.

Has anyone ever run into this before. I am sure if I was floating along instead of being held in place it would have been different. Just an odd quirk caused by the situation or do I need to make an adjustment?

 

[Bluestream]

I doubt the current had anything to do with it. More likley flooded from being tilted up

 

[SoCalBoatGuy]

Are you saying you couldn't shift into neutral because of the current? That seems different than it not starting because of the current.

 

[TWAR]

To clarify, the motor in neutral with the outboard tilted down wouldn't start in the current. The prop was spinning due to the current. It wouldn't even turn over. It's electric start and acted as if it wasn't in neutral. It didn't click, it wouldn't even try starting. It acted exactly the same as if you tried to start it without putting it in neutral.

The next issue is that I thought it must not have been in neutral so i shifted it into forward and the couldn't shift back into neutral. The prop locked up and I had to tilt it out of the water and once there was no current pressure turning the prop I could shift into neutral.

In neutral in the water it wouldn't start, but as soon as I tilted it out of the current it turned over. I am guessing it's some sort of safety feature the won't let you start the outboard while the prop is spinning, but I thought the neutral safety was only on the shift linkage.

I was able to duplicate the issue during another shallow water attempt, so it doesn't seem like a fluke.

 

[sam am I]

For 1998 and up BF 25HP, starting at SN 0G590000............I don't see anything in here that would prevent it from cranking with or without the prop turning, just needs to be in neutral............Strange. I'd guess problem somewhere in the remote harness "o" and tilting is making and breaking feed and/or the return path to/from Ig. switch. See 5 and 4/return to/from NSS (yel/red wire) on left most print below.

 

[TWAR]

I am wondering if the prop spinning somehow caused the linkages to somehow get pushed slightly out of neutral.