Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

let0927 · Feb 22, 2009

Hey guys, new here. I recently bought a boat, motor, and trailer from a friend of a friend for 400 dollars. the boat is an alumacraft 16 ft and the engine is an 1982 evinrude 35. i bought it knowing it had some mechanical problems which included a bad lower unit. so i replaced that and had the water pump replaced by a professional ( same person i bought the lower unit from). well i removed the engine from the boat which intailed removing the shifter cable, steering cable and all electrical contacts. while i had it off i replaced the rotted mounting board. well i get the engine back up to par for its age and place it back on the boat along with attatching everything back. i think i must have messed up the electrical wires because when i turn the key, nothing happens at all, no tick no nothing. so i tried hooking the battery to my car and running the car engine while i cranked, still nothing. so i ran out of daylight and now im at home waning over the problems. please let me know any information you can give me. thanks guys!!!

tashasdaddy · Feb 23, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

do you have the wiring harness with the big red plug? does the control have an emergency kill lanyard switch?

JB · Feb 23, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

Start with "Outboard won't start" in the Engine FAQs Forum, let. It won't identify the exact trouble but it should get you on the right track. Let us know what you find.

Good luck, and welcome to iboats.

let0927 · Feb 23, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

yeah it does have that plug, where would the lanyard be at, ive heard of that. this is how i hooked it back up, the hot comes in to the solenoid on the top then from there it comes out to the starter. than i hooked the ground to the block where some wires come from the red plug and attach to. my question is do all those wires hook to that point or do some hook to the solenoid. i also checked the forums but nothing has helped so far.

thanks for the advice

ezeke · Feb 23, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

You should find a torpedo fuse holder on a smaller red wire, off the large post on the battery side of the starter solenoid. That fuse leads to the purple and red wire on the way to the ignition switch; it is easily blown in the wiring process, so check that first.

The standard side mount remote controls have emergency kill switches with lanyards that become temperamental with age. They can prevent firing, but will not keep the starter from turning.

There is a neutral safety switch that prevents the starter from working unless the motor is in neutral.

let0927 · Feb 23, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

i found that i had connected a hot wire from the ignition harness in the back to the ground so i connected it back to the battery cable post on the solenoid. now when i turn the key, it just says click. well i know my battery is down so is that good news, i didnt have time to jump the battery, as far as i know it could be bad or just really low because my lights were on for like two weeks without me realizing it because it is sitting at a friends house.

waterman1971 · Feb 23, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

My 30 horse used to do that. Turns out the nuetral saftey switch was worn out.... hth

tashasdaddy · Feb 23, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

ok now you are down to this.

90% of starter problems are bad connections. remove and clean both ends of the battery cables, so that they are shiney, also the cable from the solenoid to starter. check for nicks in the cables. and make sure the connectors are on the wire good. the cable tend to corrode from the inside out, if nicked, corroded wires, and connections, heat up and cause resistance to the follow of electricity, thus the starter doesn't get enough. you can also take jumper cable pos battery post to large post on starter. with a good connection, the engine should spin. then if the starter is good clean everything and retest. then trouble shoot solenoid. starters can be rebuit at a starter/alternator shop, much cheaper than a new one.

also have the battery load tested at the auto parts store, free, i've had new batteries go bad

let0927 · Feb 23, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

Ok I went back out there and discovered the problem now the engine will turn but it won't kick on. It did once but not anymore. The problem was the ignition wire was wrong and the ground was in the wrong spot

tashasdaddy · Feb 24, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

"problem now the engine will turn but it won't kick on" this tells us, nothing. explain clearer, starter turns does not engage motor, starter turns, and turns motor, but motor does not start??????????

let0927 · Feb 24, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

ok, the starter will turn the fly wheel but no spark to the spark plugs, it did turn over once but now it just cranks continuously.

also today i went and did some troubleshooting and i actually got the entire engine to sound like it was all working in rythem but there was smoke coming out somewhere on the sides.

let0927 · Feb 25, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

does the ground wire coming from the engine connect to the block, or the starter? i had it connected to the starter and only the starter would turn the fly wheel but no firing from the spark plugs. then i moved it to the block which is where i think it was supposed to go( afriend took that off so he couldnt remember) and it started to go but then started smoking. im afraid my something has cracked, ill try and get a compression test soon, any hints
thanks.

let0927 · Feb 26, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

did you guys abandon me?

by the way, if there is anyone out there, i found that my engine harness was really corroded so i removed it, and actually found the fuse that i couldnt find before. what fuse is that, and where can i get a replacement, advance auto parts? thanks.

tashasdaddy · Feb 26, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

it is a 20 amp fuse. where is it smoking from? when you say go. do you mean runs and starts smoking?

ezeke · Feb 26, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

It's a 20 amp AGA, like this: http://www.iboats.com/AGA_20_Amp_Fuse/dm/*******.466786070--**********.719088283--view_id.87171

let0927 · Feb 26, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

ok, replaced some wires on my engine wiring harness and fuse. the ground wire smokes coming from the power pack like it gets actually so hot that it smokes. the engine when key is turned will try to turn over and uses alot of power but no start, the wire starts to smoke. we tried to pull the spark plug out and hold it to the head to see a spark, no spark. so maybe there is no power coming from the engine harness? also my friend was supposed to unhook the wires from the other side of the starter but he unhooked all of them for some reason. we took a picture of it but no real help since there is like 10 wires. anyone know a site where i can see a better picture to see where everything goes to. thanks.d

ezeke · Feb 26, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

When you say "ground wire.....powerpack", are you speaking of the black and yellow kill wire from the ignition switch? The powerpack does not have a ground wire as such, it has a ground wire on the mounting bolt; If that wire is hot, you have cooked your powerpack.

Do you have any kind of wiring diagram for your motor?

let0927 · Feb 27, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

well, there is a wire coming from the power pack and it hooks to the bolt on the block where the battery ground hooks into, right. it runs directly from the power pack on the back of the engine, the rest of the wires run across the engine to the spark plug packs. need help, it sounds good, i pulled the spark plugs off and there is compression.

let0927 · Mar 2, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

you guys are lettting my thread die, why? i need help, all i need to do is get this issue fixed and my motor will be finally working, yall dont know how long and hard ive worked on this thing. ive spent endless hours on it forfeiting fishing time in hopes i can get this thing going to take it fishing. a few of the things ive gone through since buying the entire thing for only 400, 1) replaced the lower unit 2) changed the water pump 3) spent a long time trying to figure out how to change the water pump 4) replaced the wires on the engine harness 5) battled with the feeling of hopelessness. so as you can see this really means alot to me and i would appreciate any help that leads to my ends to my means.

thanks.

Fishr23 · Mar 3, 2009

Re: Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

you know I am no expert or any thing. But its really hard to get a picture in my head of whats going on. Maybe try to clear things up a bit better and some of the experts on here might be able to help more. Also if u have a camera pics of the wiring might help.

From the looks of it you can get your motor to turn over but not fire because u are getting no spark. U also said that wires are getting hot. Wires shouldnt get hot which tells me that you may have a crossed wire, Or a wire is not properly ground or maybe a wire is damaged and is grounding out on some thing.

Start simple and elminate each thing that way you can get to a point where it can only be a few things.

Evinrude 35, nothing happens when i turn the key.

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