1982 40 hp. Mercury outboard completely dead. Was OK an hour before.

[crashpro]

I have a 1982 Mercury 40 hp. outboard with the thunderbolt ignition that was working fine today at the lake. The last time I tried to start it, it acted like the battery wasn't even in the boat. There was no reaction at all to me turning the key. It acted like the kill switch was tripped, but it wasn't. There wasn't even the familiar "click" noise when I pushed in on the key to trip the electric choke. I checked the ignition switch as best as I could and there is 12V coming into the switch and there is 12V at the purple wires when the key is in the "run" position. Now is when I get confused. If I remove the positive wire from the battery and check the ignition switch yellow/red wire (to the starter), I get continuity across the red and yellow/red wires, but when I hook the battery back up, I don't get any voltage from the starter side of the switch when the key is turned to the start position. I know the battery was up because I used the trolling motor to go over a mile back to the boat ramp and still had plenty of power left.

 

[crashpro]

Re: 1982 40 hp. Mercury outboard completely dead. Was OK an hour before.

Never mind. I found what it was, I think. There is a plug that looks like a disconnect under the motor hood. One of the connections in that plug looked like it wasn't as solid as the others. I gently cleaned both male and female halves of that connedtion, slightly spread apart the male pin part of the connection, and put it back together. So far, with about 7 motor starts, it seems to be working just fine.