Re: TD'S Biggest Goof Ever
Right after I got my most recent boat project finished, I had it out on a 3 day scout get together at the lake. I had it only out on 2 test runs beforehand, so I hadn't gotten real used to it. Friday night, I pull it off the trailer, and instead of heading straight over to where we beached them, I ran about a half mile up the lake and back, without a problem. Beached it, and 30 minutes later, dad went to take it on a run. Couldn't get the dang thing to start. The starter solenoid wouldn't click or anything. Figured the solenoid was going bad, as one of the two we had acted goofy while working on the motor. We figured that I had accidentally installed the wrong one, and it finally crapped. We couldn't hit it hard enough while attached, so we pulled it out, smacked it a few times with a wrench, and bench tested it on the battery, and it worked fine. Put it back in, no go.
Next morning, dad gets up, drives to the house, gets the second one and a few more tools to make it easier to install. Puts it in - no go. Bench tests both of them, and they both work 12 out of 12 times. Alright, that isn't the problem. Spent time working the voltmeter, and finally traced it back to the neutral safety switch. Apparently, neutral on this tiller outboard has a wider range of travel than the switch. So even though the motor was in neutral, it wasn't engaging the neutral safety switch. The funny thing is, when working on the motor, we realized that someday that neutral safety switch would cause a problem, and we probably should disable it. We also both made a mental note to check that switch if we ever had a problem. Still haven't disabled that stupid switch, and am about sick of having to wiggle the shifter to start the motor.
