Evinrude 225 wonbt turn off

" I took the boat out for a li

" I took the boat out for a little pre-season warm up ths morning. I am running a 1997 Evinrude 225 Vindicator. It started fine evne though it has been about 6 weeks since I last ran it. I ran up and down the lake at various speeds but not over about 50 mph. It ran great, accelerated and slowed fine. I decided to stop and fish for a while but the engine would not turn off. I turned off the ignition key, pulled the kill switch cord off, disconnected the battery, and even pulled the starter switch out and removed the wiring harness. The only way I could stop the engine (it was sitting at idle) was by pulling the air breather box off and placing my hands over the top 2 carbs, causing it to load up, a flood itself. I would really like to have some suggestions as to what might be causing this. It seemed to me like there must be a short or a grounding problem somewhere but I'm not sure where to start looking...

Thanks in advance. "

"Scott.... The ignition setup

"Scott.... The ignition setup on your engine is what's called a "Magneto Capacitance Discharge" system. A fancy wording meaning that the ignition is self contained and turns on and off similar to the old magneto engines, or any magneto engine for that matter.

The circuit is: The powerpack has a black wire that goes to a powerhead ground. The powerpack also has a black/yellow wire that leads up to a raised boss type terminal on the back of the ignition switch. Also on the back of the ignition switch is a black wire whiich leads back to the powerhead ground.

With the ignition switch OFF, the black wire and the black/yellow wire are connected inside the switch which shorts out the pack, killing the ignition. With the ignition switch ON, the black and the black/yellow wire inside the switch are not connected and the ignition is live.

Since you have installed a new ignition switch and I assume the wires are where they belong, I suspect that either the black wire or the black/yellow wire has a break in it somewhere. Or possibly you've had the small ground wire off of the engine at one time and neglected to re-attach it (it happens).

I'd suggest that you remove both of those wires from the back of the ignition switch, then using a ohm meter, trace the continuity back to the engine.

Another possibility is a powerpack with an faulty internal circuit affecting shutdown but that's unlikely. Good Luck.

Joe "