35hp 'Rude Ran Fine Then Died

Hi all,
My '79 #35953A ran great all day and night long. Tied off at the dock so my boy could swim, and when we went to leave about an hour later, I had the old crank-no-start issue.

Unfortunatley I couldn't check for spark at the dock. I had two fuel tanks, and swapped 'em out, and still nothing. It didn't even try to fire. Bulb on both fuel lines rock hard.

Long story short, got the boat home, threw it in the tank, cranked her a bit, and she fired right up. Checked spark at that point, and there was enough to fire 2 motors. I did smoke a WHOLE lot, then smoothed right out. After that, I started/stopped it a dozen times or more and had no more problems.

I should mention that this motor runs perfect, has 125+ on both cylinders and has never had any issues. It'll start if even look at the ignition key for too long!

The ONLY thing I can think of is that maybe a piece of dirt or something got stuck in the carb and prevented gas from getting to the motor, OR, perhaps my coils are getting finicky?

Should I just chalk it up to a fluke, or should I start diagnosing the electrical/ignition system?

Any ideas on where to start first? I just KNOW this is gonna be one of those deals where it ain't gonna be simple...:redface:

Thanks
Rick

Re: 35hp 'Rude Ran Fine Then Died

Anyone?

Re: 35hp 'Rude Ran Fine Then Died

Check the fuel delivery system, from tank to carb. Check your kill switch system, if you have one. Clean the carb(s) and start running some Sea Foam in every tank of gas.

Re: 35hp 'Rude Ran Fine Then Died

Thanks for the reply. In reading thru my service manual, I'm just going to start diagnosing the obvious, then work from there. Talked to the tech at my local BRP dealer today, and he said while its tough to diagnose certain things, a crank-no-start with not even an attempt to fire would indicate an electrical issue somewhere.

Couldn't be something simple, like a collapsed fuel line or something....

Re: 35hp 'Rude Ran Fine Then Died

It cloud be as simple as a piece of debris got caught in the needle valve in carb, and it got flooded. If the control has a neutral start switch, I would check it, maybe disconnect ground and try to start.

Re: 35hp 'Rude Ran Fine Then Died

Checked everything out, including the neutral safety switch... That appears to be working fine. Reset all the carb settings, and she still fires right up. Checked compression just for the heck of it, 130/125.

Going to throw her in the river tonite and see how she does.

I think I'm going to proceed with a carb rebuild; that little red retainer washer looks ratty. Also, the carb bowl plug was a bit loose and had some fuel seeping out. Not enough to be concerned about, but maybe she was sucking air, pitched a fit and just decided not to start.

Stay tuned...

Re: 35hp 'Rude Ran Fine Then Died

Well, dropped her the river tonite, and she ran great!!! Got her back to the dock, cut the motor for about 10 mins to adjust the trim. Went to start her again, and she acted like she wanted to flood again, but started. Ran perfect after that as well.

Rebuilding carb tomorrow.

The saga continues...