Kevin,

I could really use some of your wiring wizardry.

I have have a 2009 Centurion Avalanche. I put it up for winter and everything was working fine. I charged and installed the boat batteries after winter. All of the switches work, horn, stereo, pump, etc. I go to bump the key and I get nothing. The boat is still on the trailer and before I drag it to the lake I wanted to ensure that power was getting to the starter.

I made sure that the batteries are fully charged, boat battery switch is in the on position, emergency kill switch is in place, boat is in neutral…and I get nothing when I bump the key. I pulled the fuse behind the ignition switch and it looked fine.

The boat has dual batteries. The boat dealer added an marine battery switch last year as the batteries were draining even though the battery switch was turned to the off position.

The boat on has forty hours on it. After working in a confined space and pulling my hair out, I could use some expert advice.

Thanks,

Tommy

Hi Tommy,

If the instruments have power when you turn on the key, then I would check the neutral safety switch. Based on Standard Boat Wiring Colors, follow the yellow/red wire from the starter post on the key switch to the neutral safety switch in the shifter control.

If the key switch has no power, I would check the breaker on the engine that feeds power to the ignition.

If you use a voltmeter or a test light, you will be able to find the problem. It may be something as simple as wiggle the shifter a little or replacing the starter solenoid.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Kevin,

I’m in the boat now with even less hair.

The ignition in the on position does nothing as well as the start position.

It appears that power isn’t getting to the switch. The fuse leading up to the switch looks good. I have also been playing with the shift lever to find the sweet spot, no luck.

Trying to locate the breaker on the engine.

Thanks for all of your advice, hopefully I can get on the lake today.

Tommy

Kevin,

You the man!!! It was the engine breaker.

Tommy

Kevin,

I have a 1987 Sea Ray Sorrento S-19 with a 4.3 Liter OMC Stern Drive - with less than 400 hours on the motor.

I just put the boat in the water this weekend – and experienced a slight electrical shock when touching the shifter handle after starting the engine. Given that they are slight shocks I am thinking it may be the ignition switch.

I’ve looked at the boat’s wiring as much as I could see and didn’t see anything that would suggest a short. It all looked in good shape. I also reconnected the boat battery wiring and that didnt work. 

Fuses? Ignition switch? Any thoughts?!

Thank you!

Larry

Hi Larry,

It is probably not your boat’s ignition switch.

The starter circuit goes through the shifter, but not the ignition. Since your problem is still occurring after the engine has started, I would look at connections on the engine.

Your boat motor has a shift interrupter circuit that basically connects your ignition coil to the shift cable. When operating properly, the shift interrupter will momentarily ground the coil during shifting. When not functioning properly, crazy things happen.

The shift interrupter should be on the starboard side of the engine and will have a shift cable connected to it. Chase the wiring from the negative side of the ignition coil to the interrupter to find your problem.

Good luck,

Kevin

Kevin,

I have a Four Winns 248 with a 5.0 Volvo Penta engine.

I went to the boat today just to run the engine a little so everything gets some oil around it – and found that despite pumping some fuel into it by pushing the OMC throttle it just was not sparking. After trying this a couple of times, I turned off power at ignition.

After leaving it for a minute or two, I found that when I turned ignition power was not coming to main panel and so…no ignition.

I checked fuses in the marine electrical panel on right of helm and couldn’t see a problem. I also checked to make sure that the circuit breaker on console hadn’t popped. Unless something has blown like fuse or circuit breaker, I’m not sure what could be causing the problem.

Any help on tracking this one down would be appreciated.

Thanks

Vic

Hi Victor,

What year is your boat? This will help me determine the boat wiring between the engine and the battery.

All 248 Vistas have the same fuse block at the helm, but an older 248 would get the helm power from the main engine plug and a newer one would have a separate power circuit supplying power to the helm.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you for replying, the Four Winns we have is a 1999/2000. It was sold in October of 1999.

The problem only occurred today and the power came on at the ignition the first couple of times and starter motor was turning. I was just waiting a few minutes to see if I flooded and then when I switched back on, there was no power to the main console.

I’m wondering if it might be the OMC Thruster control, it says in the manual that it has a safety feature preventing it from starting unless in Neutral. Basically, I’m wondering if it’s a micro switch problem inside this thruster lever, unfortunately it just mentions the safety feature but don’t tell you if it cuts out the power to the ignition if it isn’t in neutral properly.

I’ve only had the boat a little while and I thought the Thrust Lever was purely mechanical, but now I’m wondering if the power is routed through the lever neutral protection thus stopping you from starting the boat.

The boat wiring diagrams provided in the users hand book shows me that power goes via safety switch so I think I might be right.

So all that remains, I guess, is to get the thing back into neutral properly and see if that fixes it! The button on top of the OMC control is a push down and does not give a very positive response so it may be that I just didn’t have it in neutral .

I’ll let you know how I get on. Unless you think it may be something else ?

Thanks Again

Vic

Hi Victor,

On your boat, power is fed to the helm fuse from the engine main engine plug. The ignition power circuit leaves the helm fuse block, to the ignition breaker, through the emergency shut off switch, and back to the key switch.

If your instruments turn on when the key is on, you have power to the ignition. The yellow/red, start wire runs from the ignition switch to the neutral safety switch in the throttle/shifter. If the switch is bad or not in neutral, it does not allow current to flow to the starter. From the shifter, the starter wire heads straight to the engine (through the same engine plug that supplies power to the helm).

The switch can be easily by-passed for testing, but getting to the wire may be a challenge. If there is not a flush cup holder in the helm near the shifter that can be slid out to peek inside, I would access the yellow/red wire through the shifter. Remove the plastic cover over the shifter, remove the four mounting screws that hold the shifter in place, and slide the shifter out to access the yellow/red wires.

The yellow/red wire pigtails on the OMC control is about 24″ long. The OMC side of the connection is a .156 female bullet connector similar to this only yellow. Unplug both connectors, hold the male terminals together, and try starting the engine.

If the engine will consistently start when you hold the terminals together, but will not when connected, either you have the shifter in the wrong position or the micro-switch is faulty. This OMC control was used for over a decade and they never changed the switch. It should be easy to locate a replacement.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Just wanted to say thankyou for your time and advice.

Thank you.

And to let you know I traced the problem to the Deadman switch which is a bit dodgy, so I need to replace it.

I’ve had a look around at deadman switches and there seems to be two types, a Break switch and Make Switch. On my 248 the switch cuts the signal when the center pin pops out, i.e., when you pull the lanyard off the pin pops out and the circuit stops so I would call that a circuit Break !!

I really do not know what would happen with a circuit make switch, do you know anything about these ?

Thanks Kevin, I really appreciate your help .

Vic

Hi Victor,

The switch used on your Four Winns is considered to be a break or normally open switch.

Outboard motors use a lanyard switch that would be a make or normally closed switch. When the lanyard is pulled, the circuit is completed between the magneto and ground. Grounding the magneto makes the engine spark stop just like on lawn mowers, chainsaws, snowblowers, etc.

Hope this helps,

Kevin