[jellis00]

I recently inherited an Evinrude Sweet 16 boat with dual 40 HP Big Twin engines. Boat and engines had not been used for last 8-10 years, so I took it to an expert mechanic who tuned engines and fixed a bent shift rod in one of them that prevented it from staying in forward gear. Engines started well electrically for him and ran well after his tuneup. Took boat onto lake next day and it started OK and ran well both at high speed initially and for a couple of hours while one engine ran for trolling. When the trolling engine quit, attempted to restart with electric starter and all that happened was a click. Tried to start the other engine that had been idle while trolling and also just a click. Opened hoods and tried to manually start by pull cord. Neither engine would permit me to pull the starter cord...both seemed locked in place.
After paddling the boat for a couple of miles (whew!) to get it out of the water, I happened to try the electric starter again and it worked fine on both engines. Couldn't figure out what happened.
Called mechanic and he tells me that these engines have a safety lockout that if the throttle is even slightly above the cutout point, the engines will not start electrically and the same cutout prevents manual pull cord start. Since I don't have engine manuals, don't know if this is true or not.
Can anyone advise me on whether safety lockout per above exists on these engines?? If not, can anyone speculate what my problem might have been in getting the electric start??

[tashasdaddy]

yes it is true. if you advance the throttle too far, or the motor is not in nuetral.