1991 Mercury 100 Outboard-key left on and now no start

[bikerider]

Hi all, I left the key on for several days on my 91 Mercury 100 outboard and cannot get the boat to start now. I checked the spark and have none. (Pulled the plugs out and turned the engine over with the plug held against the block). Does anyone know what happened?

 

[Alumarine]

Are you sure the safety lanyard / kill switch isn't activated?

 

[UKMike]

Adding to Mark C's response, sometimes coils can burn out in such situations but if the kill switch is fine and you still get no spark but engine turns over fine, check your fuses, especially the main ignition LT/HT fuse, as far as I know all motors have a main live fuse but sometimes it's after the starter motor.

 

[Scott Danforth]

outboards cant suffer coil failures. leaving the key on simply grounds the ignition.

so either your key switch is shot, or the lanyard is tripped.

 

[bikerider]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Sorry for the delay in responding. I forgot about this thread and didn't have notifications turned on for my email. Yes, the kill switch was activated for the motor. I should have checked there first. It threw me off because I figured a lanyard would shut off all power and not just spark for the motor, such as a jetski I used to ride.