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2013 BF60 will not start

M

mixman

Member
Tried to head out for the weekend today. Everything fine for first few miles. Then starboard engine drops rpm. Eventually won't run for more than a few seconds. Primer bulb appears bad. Replace bulb and then engine turns over fine but will not start. Fuel pump is moving fuel. Fuel is fresh. Port engine is fine on same fuel. I am guessing I have some sort of ignition problem. ECM perhaps?
 
I don't know a thing about the 60, but from a purely diagnostic point of view, you first need to make sure you are getting fuel to the cylinders. Once that is assured, then look into the electrical.
 
Fuel is coming out of the pump and going to the injectors. That much I have verified. Will pull a plug wire and see if there is spark.

Yes, they are under warranty as they are only about 6 months old. I burned up a lower unit at 36 hours and now this at 100 hours. Maybe I should have opted for the Yamaha 70s :)
 
Sorry to hear you're having problems with your outboard. Have you checked all the fuses? The fuel injectors might be receiving fuel but are they firing? Sometimes you can hear them "click" if you hold a screwdriver to your ear and against an injector. Out here in mechanic's land we use a little device called a "NOID" lite to verify that they are receiving power and are "pulsing".

Pulling a spark plug and seeing if it is wet or not is also a good indicator of what might be happening.

Since it is in warranty, you probably shouldn't mess around with it too much before taking it in to the dealer. If you crank the engine a lot trying to figure out what is taking place and the fuel injectors ARE delivering fuel to the cylinders, you can "wash" the cylinder walls down and start filling the crankcase with fuel, diluting the oil. Consequently, this COULD affect your warranty and the "attitude" of the dealer.

Good luck.
 
I did check all the fuses and they were all fine. I just wanted to confirm I am not missing something simple as these are so new there shouldn't be such issues. But it seems it is time to have a pro look at it. I am fortunate to have a good dealer I bought these from. I already sent them an email for an appointment.

I knew better than to just crank and crank the starter. With EFI they either start in a few seconds or they don't start at all. :)
 
Yeah, it's too bad even some mechanics don't know what you do. I've seen car engines with more gas in the crankcase than oil! I hope your dealer can fix you up quick and get you back on THE WATER!
Good luck.
 
It seems Honda won't cover travel expenses, so I've got to wait out a couple days of bad weather before taking the boat to my shop (about a mile and a half away on the same creek of the Chesapeake). The shop loaned me a gauge to check the high pressure fuel pump. Both of my engines show 40psi, so I guess it's not going to be a simple repair.
 
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Hmm. I saw a different pressure listed (35psi) in your pre edit. Was that a typo? If you are seeing less than specified fuel pressure, then you might want to spend the two days doing filter maintenance on the VST side of things. If the shop has to do it, you will be charged.
 
I'm in Rock Creek just south of Baltimore. I'm very confident in my dealer. While they just became dealers this year, the owner and his main tech are both long-time Honda Certified techs. I wouldn't have re-powered this spring if that weren't the case as I'm not very impressed by the other 3 Baltimore-area dealers.

Good to know about Whelan's. I'll keep that in mind in case I need help in that area.
 
jgmo said:
Hmm. I saw a different pressure listed (35psi) in your pre edit. Was that a typo? If you are seeing less than specified fuel pressure, then you might want to spend the two days doing filter maintenance on the VST side of things. If the shop has to do it, you will be charged.
Click to expand...

When I first took the measurement I did see just 35psi. But when I checked again it was 40 and perfectly matched the other engine. It's pretty cold here today so the gauge may have been a little stuck.

The VST side is in pretty good shape. I had many issues when I had the carb'd 50s prior to these engines. I resolved all issues years ago. There's a 15 micron (I think it's 15) water separating filter between the tank and the engine and what's in there looks good. Fuel is fresh and treated. The red float in the Honda filter is sitting on the bottom as it should be. Fuel in that filter looks and smells fine.
 
Roger that. I'm on the Potomac about 11 miles up river from Point Lookout, about 4 miles south of Ragged Point. Glad you have a good dealer. I've heard some unpleasant things about some of those dealer folks up your way. I run a C Hawk 25 with a Honda 225 strapped on a 30" Armstrong extender.
 
Yeah, the other dealers are all tough to work with. However, I didn't like hearing from mine today that it'll be a week before they can look at it. That's the same line I heard from the dealer in Key West when our lower unit burned up this spring at 36 hours. I ended up doing that repair myself after dropping $500 on shipping. It looks like if I'm going to get the boat out of the slip this weekend I'm also going to have to deal with this new issue myself. I suppose I'll start checking everything outside of the engine itself like the safety switch, double-check the fuel system (perhaps swap lines between my tanks) and I'll try and see if there's spark. I'm going to guess there's no spark as if there is, it should be running at least somewhat.

You're dealers are too far for me with just one engine. This is a 30x10' power cat.
 
Roger that on the Power Cat. I assume you have separate key switches for each motor. Just for grins have you verified that your emergency cut off switch, the one with the pull lanyard, has not been activated? I have had that issue a few times on my engine. Pull it off and re-insert the fork a few times.
 
Yes, separate keys and kill switches for each engine. I'm planning on swapping the kill switches out tomorrow to see if the problem follows the switch. That would be an easy fix and would sure explain the no-start issue I'm having. However, it doesn't explain the loss of power and dropping RPM issue I had the other day that lead to this. I suppose two unrelated things can happen at the same time. Stranger things have occurred.

I honestly can't think of much else. The fuel system is good. I do have to check for spark (although I'm pretty certain there is no spark), but after that I'm not sure what else I can do to diagnose this. I really do not like having to wait on other people like this. After 20 years of being in business there's only been a few times I've been so busy I've had to put somebody off for a day or two. I thought the marine industry was a little slow presently, but I guess not. Perhaps I need to change businesses! :)
 
Now that I think about it this could be an issue with start-in-gear protection circuit or even the tilt-protection circuit. Considering the boat is in the water I think I'll start with the kill switch, then see if there's spark. After that does anybody know if there's a way to bypass the two protection circuits to rule them out?
 
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