1987 Mercury 115

i have a pontoon that has a mercury 115hp engine. took it out sunday on the lake it started fine, stopped to fish an cut the boat off an it seemed hard to start up, engine just spinning. it finally started moved to another spot fished tried to start again an it just spinned over so much as to the battery seemed drained, i was hearing the clicking noise in the engine(starter solenoid i'm guessing) when i tried to start but now its not doing anything when you turn the key over. tried to jump the starter it engages & spins the engine but the engine still will not start. i've checked the key switch, safety neutral switch. i'm puzzled at this point so any advice or help will be greatly appreciated.

Check for ignition.

Jeff

Thank you fastjeff for the advice! but the conclusion was i had a bad starter solenoid also had corrosion on the ends of my battery cables preventing it from getting enough amps to the solenoid to spin the starter. We cleaned all the wiring an installed a new solenoid the boat fired right up.

How difficult is it to install the starter solenoid?

JKVROOOM said:

How difficult is it to install the starter solenoid?

Click to expand...

Wasn't difficult at all, just make sure the battery is taken loose. Solenoid sits on the right side of the motor down below the starter. 2 bolts plus the 4 bolts holding the wires.