Turn the key and nothing happens!

[jhells66]

I have a 70hp 1989 evinrude, I was working on it yesterday, started it up decarbed it, and was waiting for the engine to heat up so I can check the compression, once it got warm I pulled the gas off and just let it run down until it stopped. Pulled all the plugs to check the compression, went to turn the key and nothing happened. Checked the battery everything fine there, made sure it wasnt in gear, all connections good. Could it be the STARTER? when you turn the key its like the battery isnt hooked up at all, the crazy thing is when I flip the bilge it comes on, gas guage comes on, Volt meter on the dash does not register the volts for the battery. Any help as always would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Turn the key and nothing happens!

Check the 20 amp power fuse. you'll find it inline a short distance from the starter solenoid in one of the smaller red wires.

Check to see if you have battery voltage at the "B" terminal of the ignition switch.

When the key is in the START position, and only when in the START position, there should be battery voltage at the "S" terminal of the ignition switch.

(Running Engine Out Of Gas)
(J. Reeves)

If the engine has but one carburetor, it's unlikely that running the engine out of gas would do any harm. When the carburetor runs out of the fuel/oil mixture, the engine stops running.

However, a engine that has more than one carburetor should simply be shut off. The reasoning is that the top carburetor will run out of fuel first due to gravity and the engine will continue to run on because of the still existing fuel in the other lower carburetors.

This results in having at least one aluminum piston running up and down a steel cylinder wall with improper or no lubrication. Not a good idea!

 

[jhells66]

Re: Turn the key and nothing happens!

Hey Joe, thanks I will check this out this weekend and let you know what happens, I know the other night when i fooled with it I took that fuse caseing and opened it to make sure the fuse was good and it appeared to be but was also coroded in there, so I will celan that out and put in a new fuse. I am a little confused by what you mean as the "S" and "B" terminal though, do I remove the shifter box to reveal this or is this located somewhere on the engine?
The engine does have 3 carbs so I will stop running it out of fuel and just turn it off.

I will follow up this weekend and let you know where I am at, again ty for the help I really appreciated it.

Jeff

 

[ezeke]

Re: Turn the key and nothing happens!

Mr. Reeves is referring to the connections on the ignition switch. See the diagram here: http://www.maxrules.com/graphics/omc_pics/REMCONTBOX.jpg

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Turn the key and nothing happens!

Very nice diagram Zeke. I saved the graphic to my database.

 

[glengold]

Re: Turn the key and nothing happens!

is that diagram the same for my 77 55 hp evinrude?

 

[ezeke]

Re: Turn the key and nothing happens!

is that diagram the same for my 77 55 hp evinrude?

If the remote control is a 1977 standard side mount with the black cover on the top, then no, it is not the same.

 

[jhells66]

Re: Turn the key and nothing happens!

Hey Joe......

Your the man......I had a chance to look at the boat and i was first checking the wrong spot for the fuse, I though you mean the inline that connects to the battery, i found the little one in the engine and it was blown, put in a new fuse and it fired up. Thank You!

Still having trouble when it is running, had a water problem, remoed cleaned 15 gal fuel tank, replaced the filter, added a fuel/water separator, had the carbs rebuilt, took it down to the boat launch backed it in while on the trailer and ran the engine at idle and forward and after running about 10-15 min it stalls out. I was told low compression in middle cylinder, ran a can of decarb in it, seemed to run a bit better but still stalling, went to run a compression test, removed all 3 spartplugs, place compression tester in one cylinder and it read nothing not sure if maybe I just doent know what I am doing, just trying to learn.

Anyway the fuse worked I will troubleshoot the other stuff next, any ideas please let me know

Thanks
Jeff

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Turn the key and nothing happens!

Double check the compression. If one cylinder is indeed reading zero, rmove the cylinder head in order to inspect the pistons, cylinder walls, the underside of the ctyinder head, the head gasket, and the sealing surfaces of the head and block.

Hopefully you've simply got a blown head gasket. Let us know what you find.