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1997 Johnson 115 Fast Strike not cranking

Z

Zaorish0

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Hi everyone. I have a 1997 Johnson 115 Fast Strike and it's not turning over. I've had some issues with this. If I played with the shifter I could get it to crank, but now I'm getting nothing. My starter and solenoid are good and I tested the switch in the gear shift with a multimeter and it's good. Any ideas? I've heard something about a gear in protection switch in the engine but I have no idea what that would look like or where it might be.
 
I don't remember if the neutral safety switch is normally open or normally closed. I seem to recall they are normally closed in the neutral position and open when in gear. When you tested the switch, was the button of the switch depressed and what reading did you get?

I don't know if the 4 cylinder engines had a shift cutout on them. I think some V6 engines had a switch that would momentarily kill spark to 1 bank of cylinders when shifting but I don't know if the V4's had that feature.
 
kevinj said:
I don't remember if the neutral safety switch is normally open or normally closed. I seem to recall they are normally closed in the neutral position and open when in gear. When you tested the switch, was the button of the switch depressed and what reading did you get?

I don't know if the 4 cylinder engines had a shift cutout on them. I think some V6 engines had a switch that would momentarily kill spark to 1 bank of cylinders when shifting but I don't know if the V4's had that feature.
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When my shift is in neutral the button on the switch is open. When it's in gear the little arm on the switch presses the button in. My father and I aren't that electrical savvy. We figured if we stabbed both wires and got noise from the multimeter we would have power to it.
 
Zaorish0 said:
When my shift is in neutral the button on the switch is open. When it's in gear the little arm on the switch presses the button in. My father and I aren't that electrical savvy. We figured if we stabbed both wires and got noise from the multimeter we would have power to it.
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A little terminology: Normally Open and Normally Closed are electrical states of switches.

Normally Open means is there is no contact between the two terminals but when the button is pressed the circuit closes to make contact.

Normally Closed is the opposite: the terminals are connected and when the button is pressed it breaks the connection.

You need to use a multimeter in the OHM mode and find the yellow wires for the neutral safety switch. Put the multimeter leads on the end of the wires and with the shift lever in the neutral position see if you get an ohm reading at or near 0 or if you get infinity. Now, shift the lever into forward gear and watch the meter. If the switch is good the display should now show the exact opposite of the reading you saw in neutral. So, if your neutral reading was 0, in gear you should see infinity or vice versa. If there is no change whether in neutral or in gear then you have a bad neutral safety switch, a bad connection, or something in the control box is broken.
 
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