Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

[nathan104]

Heres my most recent stupid move.

I was heading out a few weeks ago and went to turn over the motor before we left to make sure it was good to go. Apparently my cranking battery had died since the last time I used it. After determining that the battery was indeed dead, I still wanted to go fishing so I switched to the trolling battery just for the trip determined to buy a new battery soon. Well, of course it slipped my mind after the trip. Went out to get it ready to go again this week and started to crank it over on the hose. It turned over or about 3 seconds and then nothing. It would not crank at all. It was just dead. I checked the connections to the battery and they were tight. Checked the battery and it was charged. I couldnt find my muli meter so I started to visually check wires. I went through the motor and then moved onto the ignition and was chasing wires and taking things a part for a few hours. I ran a jumper cable from the battery to the starter and it kicked over so that wasn't the problem.

So, after a few hours I finally break down and go buy a $10 multi-meter. First thing I check is the power cables on the motor from the battery and was not getting a reading. That's wierd I thought. So, I checked the power cable just a few inches from the battery and got no reading. thats even stranger. Then, I look down at my trolling motor battery and see the circuit breaker I installed on the positive side of my trolling battery a few months before when adding my new trolling motor...DOH!! I push the little reset button on the breaker and it turns right over. Talk about feeling like an idiot. But, in my defense, who in their right mind uses there trolling motor battery which has a circuit breaker as their cranking battery anyways? I mean, what an idiot...

So, in all, I wasted the day searching for a broken wire, and didnt get to go fishing.

 

[Tyme2fish]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

You didn't get to fish, but man, you know you got some good wires!!!!

 

[pontooner]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

lol, I thought this was another case of the emergency kill switch:redface:

 

[Windykid]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

At least you got a new multi meter

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

There are lots of reasons an outboard won't start.

Many years back, my father came to visit me and we decided to go fishing. I launched my aluminum boat with the 6hp Johnson on the back and tied it up to the courtesy dock. My dad and I got in, and I started pulling on the rope to fire up that outboard. It always started on the second pull when it was cold.

Not this time. I pulled and pulled...tried choke on, choke off. I must have pulled that rope 60 times.

My dad, who loves a joke, especially at someone else's expense said, "Let me give it a try." I agreed, since we really wanted to go catch some fish.

So, we switched places in the boat. He calmly reached down, connected the fuel line to the engine (I had pumped the bulb firm earlier), pulled the starter rope and off we went.

I still haven't lived that down, and it's been over 25 years since the incident. Uffda!

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

There are lots of reasons an outboard won't start.

Many years back, my father came to visit me and we decided to go fishing. I launched my aluminum boat with the 6hp Johnson on the back and tied it up to the courtesy dock. My dad and I got in, and I started pulling on the rope to fire up that outboard. It always started on the second pull when it was cold.

Not this time. I pulled and pulled...tried choke on, choke off. I must have pulled that rope 60 times.

My dad, who loves a joke, especially at someone else's expense said, "Let me give it a try." I agreed, since we really wanted to go catch some fish.

So, we switched places in the boat. He calmly reached down, connected the fuel line to the engine (I had pumped the bulb firm earlier), pulled the starter rope and off we went.

I still haven't lived that down, and it's been over 25 years since the incident. Uffda!

Now that one's a classic !!!!

 

[Jimmyz123_]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

Those kill switches will kill ya everytime. Before I got my boat I was a boat renter at the city lakes here in San Diego. So one morning, I think it was my birhtday, I get to Lake Jennings, home of some really big bass. No dock person to help out, I was told to place my rental slip in the boat house, grab a seat cushion and pick out a boat. So I did all that. I jumped into the first boat, pumped the buld, and pulled and pulled till I was hotter than $700. A guy and his son see me and say, Sir, can we get a boat? I said I don't work here, I'm just trying to get this darn boat going so I can go fishing. I get all my gear out of this boat move on to the next one. I didn't even bother to notice if the Kill switch was installed on the first boat or not. Second pull on the other boat and it starts right up. To this do you are the first ones I have told about that happening. That happened two years ago. It's amazing how the little things cause so much trouble.

 

[tomatolord]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

Neighbor calls me one the phone and asks me to come over because he is having a problem starting his power washer -when i get there he is beet red and puffing hard - i give it one pull no good - i reach down and flip the kill switch on the motor - and it fires right up.

i said anytime you need an expert just call me....

Tomatolord

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

And I thought you were stranded in the middle of the lake, no one in sight because you ran down the TM battery and couldn't start the big motor. You should have went and buy a new cranking battery as soon as you found out it was dead. The only time you can half azz rig something to get by is to get back to the ramp.

 

[rndn]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

Was out boating this weekend and went by a boat with a woman waving frantically ate me. I pull over shut down the motor and ask what the trouble is? She says that her and her husband had rented this boat from the marina and had stopped for a while to fish. Once they were ready to try another spot, the motor would not turn over. So me being the "boat expert" tell them that they probably pulled the kill switch off and to look for a lanyard or something. They looked and could not find one. I had them try the horn, it worked so I know the battery has some power. I get into their boat and proceed to "help them" with my vast boating experience. I spend 20 minutes trying to get the thing to turn over. No luck so I tow them to the marina figuring it's something major. The marina guy comes out and to see what the problem was, get's in the boat places the boat in nuetral and it fires right up. The boat renters being new did not put the thing in nuetral when they atopped and I felt like an idiot for not checking that first. I always forget to resort to the KISS method for trouble shooting. For those who don't know the KISS method is and acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid. Someday I'll learn.

 

[MacGizmo]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

It must happen to us all...... "THE KILL SWITCH"

 

[Evinrude15]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

Now, My father had got sick of dealing with this 85' mercury (suprizing, eh), And took off in the truck and came home with a new outboard. It was a 2006 Yamaha 25 2 stroke. we chucked the merc and hooked up the yami. We decided to go fishing and got it launched. I started pulling and pulling for 30 minutes and we started to paddle the boat back up river to the dealer when my father said "why didn,t you put the fuel hose on correctly stupid?? you are pumping gas out of the engine!!. That saved me from a humiliation from the tecs at the marina. DUH!!!!!:redface:

 

[starcraft67]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

The hilarious stories remind me of a couple: many years ago I worked on a road crew for the summer, a county highway dept. One day the regulars left a dump truck by the side of the road and went back at quitting time and told the garage manager it would not start. The mechanic truck went out the next AM and reported back that the moronies operating the truck had not switched over to its other gas tank when the first one went dry. Now this was not the summer help responsible for this, these were veteran employees. Nevertheless, even to this day, whenever I get behind the wheel of a truck with two gas tanks, I find out where the switch is and how much is in the tanks before I go anywhere.

About ten or twelve years ago, when I worked downtown in Columbus OH, I came out one day and the fellow who ran the lot I parked in, with whom I was friends, had a very long face. I asked what was up, and he said he had put the days receipts in the trunk of his car and then shut the trunk with the keys in the trunk too. The car was a Buick or Olds, I don't remember which. Being familiar, as I was, with GM engineering through long and arduous experience, I asked if the car was unlocked and if there was a trunk switch in the glove box. Yes, was the reply, but it doesn't work when the ignition isn't on. Indeed, I said, but the little glove box light next to it works all the time. So saying, I detached the leads from the light and touched them to the trunk switch. Regardez!! Someone went to university to think that system up.

Starcraft67

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

All my trunk releases work with key off.
Hmmmmmmmm.

 

[guy74]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

The trunk release won't work in my Trans Am with the key on, unless the drivers door is open. Also, one day my wife called me at work and said that the car wouldn't start, she was at a store about a mile from where I worked at the time. I drove there, walked up to the car, put it in park, turned the key, and told her to go home. Not sure she knows what I did, but I like to keep it that way.

 

[AK_Chappy]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

The trunk release won't work in my Trans Am with the key on, unless the drivers door is open. Also, one day my wife called me at work and said that the car wouldn't start, she was at a store about a mile from where I worked at the time. I drove there, walked up to the car, put it in park, turned the key, and told her to go home. Not sure she knows what I did, but I like to keep it that way.

I did that exact thing about 20 years ago. In the Air Force in Southern California. Fella had driven to the dining hall, parked, keys wouldn't come out of the ignition, went in, ate, came out, walked back to the dorm to ask for help. He wasn't the most popular person, that's a nice way to put it. He finally tracked me down the next afternoon. We walked over, I put it in park, handed him the keys and just smiled.

Here's your sign.

AK Chappy

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

I did that exact thing about 20 years ago. In the Air Force in Southern California. Fella had driven to the dining hall, parked, keys wouldn't come out of the ignition, went in, ate, came out, walked back to the dorm to ask for help. He wasn't the most popular person, that's a nice way to put it. He finally tracked me down the next afternoon. We walked over, I put it in park, handed him the keys and just smiled.

Here's your sign.

AK Chappy

I wished that was the case for me a few years ago, me and the girlfriend just came out from grocery shopping. I had a standard shift 2002 Ford Ranger XLT......I get in and I went to start the blessed thing and it wouldn't hit a lick.......if I remember right we called a wrecker so the wrecker was in route......well my girlfriend happened to be talking to her X-husband on the cell phone and I believe he was in the area or so.......he came over and pulled the cover off of the passenger side side wall and reset the fuel pump switch.

I felt like a dumb a**, had to call and cancel the tow truck and thank the X-husband for the help lol. Believe it or not me and the X-husband actually got along or tolerated one another lol which ever sounds best.

 

[steve201]

Re: Stupid motor wont start because of stupid operator

did the kill switch thingy myself...just got the boat..was going to move it to another slip...wouldn't fire..could hear the fuel pump charge...but nothing...called the dealer and they sent a mechanic right over...he dug down into the engine bay and as he was checking and all ..I happened to glance up at the switch!!!...DOH!!!...he laughed ..I offered a beer...he declined and went back to work!!...