Suzuki DT40 manual start

[newster]

I just bought a 1985 DT40 that was hooked up to a boat with a key starter. I want to manual start it from now on with the pull starter. Is there anything special I need to do? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

Will you be using the key to enable and disable the ignition? If not, you will need something at the engine to do this. You will also need a way to activate the choke/primer system for cold starts. Unless the engine has a front mounted choke button of sorts, you would need to remove the cover to choke the engine. Since this is was obviously a helm steered unit, why not add the battery and continue to use the electric start.

 

[newster]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

Actually that is the reason for my confusion. It is a tiller motor but it has a key electric start. The choke is on the front of the engine, but apparently you had to turn the key on to pull start it. When I bought it, we cut the cables to the key starter because I just want to manual pull start it without a key from now on. Do I need to do something special like connect some wires (or disconnect all the wires), or do I need to get a new key thing? Thank you for you response!

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

I'm confused. What cables did you cut? Be specific! To cut the cables to the key switch you would need to be inside the engine. Or do you mean you cut the battery cables. See how important a little bit of information can be? If all you did was cut the positive and negative battery cables you don't need to do anything. Turn the key on, pull the choke and pull the rope. Turn the key off to kill the engine. Now then -- why on earth does turning the key on and off bother you -- especially since you need some way to kill the engine anyway and using the choke for that is not the way to do it. And if you actually did cut the wires to the ignition switch I am at a total loss why you would do that.

 

[newster]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

I cut the wires to the ignition (where you turn the key), which in hindsight, was not very smart. The reason that I did that though, was because I bought the motor and not the boat. Does this mean I need to buy a new ignition box and wire it up before the motor will start? I was looking for a way to bypass having to have an ignition, but I will buy a new box if that is the only way. Basically the wires that were cut are brown, white, red, yellow, and possibly a blue all bundled together.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

On a two stroke engine the ignition circuit is OPEN (no connection) for the engine to run and CLOSED (ignition shorted to ground) to kill the engine. Your engine will start with no switch but you won't be able to stop it. When you say "ignition box" do you mean the ignition switch was in a separate box somewhere in the boat or was it part of the engine? If the box was part of the boat, go back to the person you bought the engine from and demand the box as it is rightfully part of the engine. If that's not possible, you can go to Radio Shack or nearly any hardware store and buy a simple ON-OFF switch. Connect the yellow wire to one terminal on the switch. Connect the other terminal to ground on the engine. Now understand this. ON for the switch is really OFF for the engine. OFF for the engine is ON for the switch. You can do the same thing with a simple push button (momentary contact) switch. You simply push the button and hold it in until the engine dies.

 

[newster]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

Thank you for your help. I did pick up the electric starter from the same guy last night. It is one of those you turn to start and push in for choke. It also had a separate safety kill switch and some sort of alarm. I will attempt to reconnect them together again today and I will post my results.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

Whao back here. Now all at once you are talking about an electric starter. Just what in heck are we talking about. One minute you want to manual start this thing and now you are back to electric start. Be very specific about what you are trying to achieve. To use electric start the engine needs a starter motor. Is that what you have? You also need a battery. Do you have one? If you picked up the key switch from him, only the OFF-RUN portion will work if you DO NOT have a battery or the actual starter motor. See why I'm confused? Remember -- I can't see what you've done or what you plan to do. I'm trying to help but you are not being very helpful. Electric start features won't work if you don't have all the pieces.

 

[newster]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

Sorry for the confusion.

1. It does have a starter motor. However, when I started it last week, I used the puller while the ignition switch was on. I was just trying to switch the whole thing to simply pull start without having the ignition switch to keep it simple.

2. I rehooked up the switches and it won't fire. The electrical starter looks fine, but it doesn't work either. I might have miss wired something, or it just needs a lot of work. I am going to get professional help to spare myself a headache.

3. I will post the results hopefully they are positive!

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

The simplest thing you could have done was left things just as they were. You could have simply turned the key to run, pulled the choke, pulled the rope and away you go. But the minute you cut the electrical stuff out you now have no way to turn this motor on and off (except for the way I described). The battery you have is good is it not? Just because you charged it does not mean it's good.

 

[newster]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

I decided to work on the boat myself. I have made a lot of progress. I found that the connection between the ignition switch and the engine was corroded and I spliced the wires together. Now when I turn the engine will fire a couple of times and shut down immediately. I feel like I have something wired wrong causing the engine to kill the spark immediately after start.

Here are a couple of things I might have done wrong.

There is a light yellow wire in the wiring box in the engine. It either goes into the split input of the yellow wire or the split input of the red wire. Which one is it supposed to go in? You can see in the picture I have it plugged into the yellow wire connector.

Another thing that might be causing problems is I have a grey wire coming from the ignition but no corresponding grey wire going into the engine. All the other wires are there such as black, yellow, blue red, blue, orange, white, and brown. Am I supposed to do something with this wire?

Thanks and sorry for the flip flops, I am a californian afterall.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

Just because the engine quits after if fires a couple times doesn't mean it is an ignition problem. Have you actually checked spark after it has fired but quit running? Have you taken the plugs out of the engine to see if this thing isn't hopelessly flooded? To keep things on an even keel here I want to make sure you use the corrct terms. The "electric starter" you keep refering to is actually the "ignition switch". The "starter" is the the electric motor that engages the flywheel to spin the engine when using the electric start feature. The "puller" you refer to is the "recoil" or "rope starter" used to pull-start the engine. Since you have cut and disconnected so many wires I have no idea whether or not you have them connected correctly and I don't have a wiring diagram for that engine.

 

[pixodelica27]

Re: Suzuki DT40 manual start

Hi,
I just bought a 2004 fishmaster boat, and the motor is a DT140 suzuki, but the ignition key doesnt work, I being trying to find someone to fix it but havent be able to, so they told me if I can get the diagram for this they can try, is any one there that they can help me????

THANKS!!!!!