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Need help resetting the hour counter on Honda BF250

JakeInVegas

New member
We have a Honda BF250 with iST rigging (fly by wire). The boat is kept at the marina at Lake Mead. The local marina is also the owner of the dealership that we purchased the boat through. They are a Mercury dealership and have agreed to service the boat at the marina using Honda parts and oil so we don't run into warranty issues. After the 20 hour service the operation hour notification system was not reset. I have tried the instructions labeled in the owners manual a total of at least thirty times between five different outings. They are as follows

"After periodic maintenance is performed, follow these steps to reset the hour counter.

1. Be sure to turn OFF the engine before beginning the reset procedure. Pull the emergency stop switch clip out of the emergency stop switch by pulling the emergency stop switch lanyard.
2. Put the shift lever in “F” (Forward) or “R” (Reverse).
3. Turn the ignition switch ON. Do not start the engine. The buzzer will sound once.
4. Press the emergency stop switch 5 times within 20 seconds. The buzzer will sound once indicating the hour counter is reset."

This procedure does not work. When I turn the key to the "on" position it buzzes twice instead of once. I have both pushed and pulled on the killswitch button to no avail. I contacted the local Honda dealer/service center and they are a new rep for Honda. He has not serviced a system like this and was not able to help over the phone. We do not have a trailer for the boat as it is permanently stored at the marina. I have been calling around to various shops and finally spoke to a tech who said that the problem is that there is a separate set of instructions for an engine equipped with iST (intelligent shift and throttle) or fly by wire vs standard cables. He noted that we will need to remove the engine cowling and pull a fuse as part of the procedure. He seemed annoyed to be talking to me and was trying to get off the phone so I wrote down his instructions to the best of my memory.


1. Pull kill switch
2. Put in gear
3. Turn key on
3. Turn key off
4. Pull fuse to iST
5. Push kill switch five times

I am not sure if I wrote it down correctly and will try it this weekend. I have looked through the shop manual for the BF250 and could not find a solution. After further research I found a used copy of this supplement on ebay and it will be arriving next week. I am hoping that the instructions to reset the hour counter are contained in the supplement. See picture below. If any of you could provide further assistance it would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance.

$_1.JPG
 
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Key on
Shift to forward
Remove IST fuse,
Key off
Key on
activate kill switch at 1 sec interval until beep heard
Key off, reinstall fuse
Key on
Job done
 
Key on
Shift to forward
Remove IST fuse,
Key off
Key on
activate kill switch at 1 sec interval until beep heard
Key off, reinstall fuse
Key on
Job done

Need some more clarification if you would be so kind. We attempted to use the procedure outlined above and were unsuccessful. I received the shop manual supplement today in the mail and it says nothing about the reset procedure. So I am back to square one. We removed the fuse on the port side of the large black electrical box (labeled electrical parts case in the manual) on the front side of the engine. I believe this is the correct fuse.

Next point of clarification. Do we shift into forward or push it all the way to the full ahead throttle position like when you are doing the alarm code recovery procedure listed in the manual?

Final point of clarification. At exactly what point in the procedure do I remove the kill switch?

Thanks so much for your help so far. I really appreciate it.
 
You must shift into forward or reverse and pull the fuse out with the key on so that when you turn the key off it stays in gear. When you have done this, check that the motor is in gear while the key is off, this will confirm you have pulled the correct fuse. Next, pull out the lanyard, turn the key on and then activate the kill switch on and off until you get two long beeps. Key off. refit fuse.
 
Just to be clear on the shift issue,all you are doing is opening the neutral switch circuit, so it can be in forward or reverse. The reason for removing the fuse is because if you turn off the ignition with the fuse installed it will automatically go back to neutral.
 
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