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89 gt 200 first start troubles

J

jason17

Member
It has only happened twice on the water, now once in the drive way. I crank and crank and i might get a sputter or nothing at all. almost like the kill switch has been activated. so on the water the second time i cut out the kill switch and ohm'd it out. seems to work as advertised. so upon reassemble i put a couple of test leads in so i could ohm out the kill circuit later if i need to. i thought that i might have flooded it out because the first time it happen i cleaned the plugs and wallah, we have ignition. second time it didn't do squat. so i trolled out with the electric motor and went fishing. half way through the trip i just attempted to start the engine, and what do you know. its running again. now today i placed a meter on my new leads that i made to check out my kill circuit. With the key in the "off" position i have continuity, while the key is in the run position i have no continuity. now the weird part, while cranking the motor i have continuity. not just any continuity, but 0.0 ohms. that's great continuity. I assume the motor is trying to run but the kill circuit is preventing ignition. i don't think its the switch nor the kill switch. they seem to work flawlessly when i put the meter on them. while i was back by the motor looking at the port side i herd a "click" at the time i disconnected the temp probe and just re-installed it. i hopped back in the drivers seat and the motor started right away. This time with the meter hooked up to my test leads i don't have continuity while the engine is cranking over. I tried it again probable 5 times without a single stumble. i know that the throttle has a neutral start switch and when it's not at the right spot the motor will not turn over at all. I'm kinda running out of options here. I'm thinking maybe there is a relay somewhere that is in control of the kill circuit that is kinda acting up while the motor is rotating. I'm really not sure. Any advise or troubleshooting ideas would be very helpful. the motor model is J200STLCEB. thanks for your time.
 
J200STLCEB = 1989 200hp Johnson Loop Charged Model V6.

When this problem raises it's ugly head, disconnect the "Yellow/Black Stripe" wire from either the ignition switch or from the powerpack, whichever is easier. If this cures the problem immediately, replace the ignition switch as it has a intermittent short within it.
 
When the problem occurs, disconnect the black/yellow stripe wire from the pulse pack. This eliminates the whole wiring harness.
 
When the second even happen i pulled out the kill switch and cut the black/yellow wire and the black wire. it would appear that the kill switch and the ignition switch were wired in parallel. Neither which tested good to ground, that's why i assumed the relay idea. but back to the facts, upon cutting the wires nothing changed. during my second trip half way through the fishing, when the motor did start, it wouldn't shut down. i needed to cross the cut black and black/yellow wire to kill it. during my test while the motor was not starting, i disconnected the power wire to the starter so the contactor was getting juice and most everything else, besides spinning of the engine and i did not get continuity through my test leads during the turn of the ignition key, another reason i suspected a relay of sorts. I'm gonna try it tomorrow and run some more test. If it works tomorrow i will be more prone to search for something that fails after days of not being turned on, since i got it running yesterday afternoon.

i think i might create a dis-connectable splice right out of the power pack just to test that other idea, which could possibly be a short in the kill switch harness.
 
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New twist, probably the fix. I got it running this morning, I was doing the old mechanic trick by tapping on stuff. While the motor was running i tapped the power pack, the motor died. Got the engine started again, tapped some more. The engine never died again, but tapping on the pack caused rpm fluctuations. I am going to guess my wallet is going to be about 200 dollars lighter soon...
 
Well i think the verdict is in. temporarily removed the power back but left all the wires hooked up. had the wife start the engine and leave it running while i grabbed all the wires with a long pair of needle nose pliers and yanked on everything. no discrepancies noted.

While holding the power pack away the engine, tagged the top of the power pack with the screw driver... and it died again. duplicated it twice. guess my next trip to the lake may need the assistance of a hammer until i can muster up some green backs...
 
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