Re: '72 50 HP won't start
sealyons. If your motor starts with starting fluid and then dies, I would guess that it's a fuel problem. Is the gas fresh? Was the motor stored properly while it was sitting? Was the motor running when it was put away? If the answer to all these is yes then cleaning the carbs would be my next step. The motor will stay in forward until you get it running. Once the motor starts, you can shift it. Turning it over with the battery will sometimes provide enough hydraulic pressure to shift but not always. If after you get it running, it is still stuck in forward, you will need to trouble shoot the L/U. First make sure you have clean, water free, type "C" lower unit oil in there. Regular gear oil will clog the pump and water will short the solenoids. ATF can be run through the system to clean it out and it does a great job, but you need to get the motor running first. If it still won't shift, run a +12 V wire to the green wire for neutral and the green and blue for reverse with the motor running to see if it will shift. If it does, you have a bad switch in your remote assembly. If it doesn't, either your solonoids aren't working or there is a short in the wireing in the L/U. (very common with these motors). If this is the case pull L/U and check wireing. Check each solenoid with your meter on ohms. Put one lead on first the green then the blue wire with the other lead on a solid ground. You should read 5 to 7 ohms of resistance. If not, your solenoids are bad. If none of this works, post back and we'll see what's next. Good luck.
