150 HP Mercury Suddenly refuses to start

[Atreides]

Longtime reader of this forum, have searched and not able to find a situation quite like mine, so here goes...

Yesterday my wife and I went on an afternoon/night cruise. We later pulled into a gas dock 25 miles from our home marina to fill up, and the motor would not start.

The starter runs, the bendix engages the flywheel and spins but the engine never engages, as in begins to chug to start.

I have done the following:

Made sure engine in neutral, tilted down and kill switch in place

Installed new fuel filter

Checked all spark plugs and discovered no spark to any

Checked all wires to ensure no bad connections or frayed wires

Went back to the kill switch (mercury lanyard type), tried disconnecting a wire- no change

disconnected both wires- no change

repeatedly mashing the red button hard while turning key- engine attempts to catch for a split second, then fails

Holding red button down does nothing, only smashing it repeatedly will intermittently cause the outboard to catch for a split second, but never has the motor actually started.

The motor is a 2000 Mercury 150 LEFI s/n OT 144256 the killswitch is the Sierra replacement lanyard type

I have a new killswitch coming, but am stumped, and the idea of paying $400 for a tow is distressing.

Thank you for any ideas

 

[ondarvr]

Check for continuity through the switch, or bypass it and see if you get spark.

 

[Chris1956]

The ignition switch also grounds the switchbox to kill the spark. Maybe the ign keyswitch is defective or shorted? Disconnect the black/yellow wires at the switchbox. You will likely have two switchboxes, one on top of the other, on the starboard side of the motor.

 

[Atreides]

My boat is two hours away, I won't be able to get to it until Wednesday. I have ordered a replacement ignition switch and kill switch, I will replace those.

Is there a way to bypass these switchboxes, should those be the problem?

 

[Chris1956]

Switchboxes are Mercury's term for powerpack or ignition module. They are Capacitive Discharge Ignition modules. Without them working properly, you will have zero spark. So no bypass is avail....

 

[Atreides]

Thank you everyone for the help. Turned out my stator went out and took the switchbox with it. Managed to paddle it to the ramp and pull it out, now at the shop. Having it fixed and lower unit maintenance done. Should have it back this weekend, freakin thing better purr like a kitten. I'm sure the repair shop will give me a hat for the size of the bill. B.O.A.T. - Break Out Another Thousand

 

[Dukedog]

..........ya fixed it while I was typin'. btw, don't let 'em sell ya "switch box"... yours doesn't have any!