99 Mercury 115 won't crank

[Scubaslife]

My fishin buddies mercury seems to have seized up yesterday. The battery is good and the starter engages when you turn the key but the motor won't crank. He said he was running it yesterday and the motor started bogging down like it was under a heavy load. It did this a couple times on the water then it died and he couldn't get it to turn over at all after that. Now for a little background, he hit a stump a week ago and busted the old prop off and replaced it... Do you suppose he messed up the lower unit somehow and it's seized up?
Thanks for any help.
Scuba

 

[CharlieB]

Re: 99 Mercury 115 won't crank

Drop the lower unit and hit the key to see if the motor turns fine.

If not, leave the key ON and ground the temp switch (tan) wire on the motor to test the overheat alarm. If the alarm fails to sound he possibly overheated the motor and seized it.

Repost your findings.

 

[Scubaslife]

Re: 99 Mercury 115 won't crank

Thanks Charlie,
I'll let you know what I find... won't be able to look at it til tomorrow.
Scuba

 

[reimelss]

Re: 99 Mercury 115 won't crank

What happened here scuba?
I think I might be in the same spot

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: 99 Mercury 115 won't crank

I am going to say a bent rod.

 

[Scubaslife]

Re: 99 Mercury 115 won't crank

Sorry for the long delay guys...
Here's what happened. As it turns out the #2 piston burned out and seized due to a clogged carb. The block was toast so had to pull it and order a new (rebuilt) one.
That said, the new power head is on and everything is hooked up and ready to go but we can't get it to fire off when we crank it. We've done and then re-done the timing just the way the manual instructs but still can't get it to fire. We're getting spark to each cylinder but for some reason it's not getting any fuel to the plugs. They're new plugs and when we pulled them out to check the spark we noticed they are still pristine... no oil, no fuel. Bone dry, just like they were when we pulled them out of the box. I'm wondering if maybe we have the wiring wrong somewhere... possibly messing up the firing sequence.
Any ideas would be helpful.
Thanks,
Scuba

PS... I'm gonna start a new thread for this as well since it's been so long.