2002 Johnson 140 4 stroke

[levi_tsk]

So I've been working on this thing for awhile and after welding up the hole in the exhaust housing on the powerhead and removing the steel plug from the leg that caused it and welding up the hole for the plug I FINALLY got to get it put back together now now my keyswitch is giving me issues.
Currently I have the motor hung on the boat and the harness is plugged in to the motor along with the keyswitch and systems check tachometer and keyswitch.
The yellow with a red stripe neutral safety wire is disconnected from the binnacle and there an unused pin on the keyswitch that I assume would go from the neutral safety switch and then to the yellow and red wire to the keyswitch harness. However when it put the yellow and red wire to the pin on the keyswitch and turn the key it doesn't turn the motor over. The fuel pump comes on and the horn beeps but nothing else works. So yesterday on a hunch I tried hooking the red and yellow wire to the positive side of the battery but alas no joy so figuring it had to need a ground then I grounded the yellow and red wire to the negative terminal and she rolled right over. So I primed the fuel system clicked thw key to the run position and hooked up the hose and did it a again and she fired right up and ran like a brand new one.
Battery is brand new harness is in great shape motor is in neutral and the kill switch lanyard is on the keyswitch.
My question is is the keyswitch bad? Am I wrong that the empty pin on the keyswitch goes to the yellow and red wire? It seems to be working other than the starter circuit?

 

[jakedaawg]

There should be two yellow/red stripe wires coming from the neutral safety switch in the binnacle.

the sticky at the top of forum has the wire diagram.

 

[jakedaawg]

Edit

 

[levi_tsk]

Yea one goes into the harness and the other into the keyswitch right?

 

[levi_tsk]

Here's what I currently have ^^

 

[jakedaawg]

Yes, the yellow/red goes to the s terminal. I am guessing you actually put 12+ to it when you got it to crank and just thought you were grounding it.

so, that yel/red wire goes from the s terminal to the neutral safety switch then from safety switch to starter solenoid or relay in this case.

test key switch as per sticky.

test neutral safety switch by unplugging both yel red wires from it. Place binnacle in neutral. You should show very low resistance, 0 ohms or so, through the neutral safety switch.

 

[levi_tsk]

So I fixed it!!
I had my local outboard mechanic look at the keyswitch and it had two wires crossed up BUT even after he swapped the wires I I tried the key and got no joy. Turns out I WAS in fact grounding it to make it start because I later touched the yellow and red wire to the negative terminal on the battery and it rolled over. Now this got me thinking so I looked at the other powerhead I got in this swap and there were two black wires on a ring terminal attached to the negative post bolt on the starter so I looked at MY motor and those negative wires were hooked to the positive terminal on my starter so I swapped them to the negative touched the red and yellow wire to the post on the keyswitch hit the keyswitch and TADAHHH!! JOY!! Problem solved!! As an added bonus one of my trim relays wasn't working before the swap and after it it began to work so apparently those grounds are for the starter solenoid and the trim and tilt relays. Hopefully someone will find this information useful in the future.