wharfcreek
Member
I have a 1996 3 cylinder 50ELO 50 HP Mercury outboard on a 15' Key West Center Console boat. After constantly banging my knees into the ignition switch....I finally got around to 're-locating' it from the front of the console....right where your knees are.....to the top of the console right under the tach. Looks good, works perfectly....AND....no more damaging it by bending keys or bruising my knee!! (Why Key West put it there is simply beyond me!!) Anyway.....adjacent to the ignition switch was also what I believe to have been a 'Lanyard Kill Switch'. This was a two-position toggle switch that was flipped 'up' for all the time I've owned the boat....until today. Anyway..... it too was a possible 'knee-knocker'......so I attempted to remove that switch to relocate it as well. However, in so doing, it literally broke apart such that I couldn't tell just how it was wired. It appears to be a two-position switch......but has 3 wires running to it. The wire in the center position was a black wire with a white tracer. At one end was a black wire with a yellow tracer, and the other end had a purple wire running to it. Since the switch was broken, I simply 'snipped' all 3 wires off about 1" short of the original switch. But, the way the switch broke....the barrel end broke off along with the toggle mechanism. So, once that was broken off, the 'guts' of the switch were no longer operable and just fell apart. Hence I can't tell how the switch was making contact in either the 'up' or 'down' position. However, being 'removed' completely doesn't seem to have affected anything. The engine still starts, all the instruments work as do all the accessories. But, I know this doesn't mean that everything IS operating as it should. It may be that the switch DOES need to be back in the circuit for something to work as it should....perhaps a charging system item, or maybe something to do with ignition timing.....I don't know. May be fine 'as is'....but, if so, I'd like to confirm that. I've 'google-searched' a proper wiring diagram, and with over 100 views, I can't find a 'proper' one yet! The closest I could come was a diagram that showed a 'Lanyard' switch with a black/yellow and a black wire going to it. The black wire was a ground wire, and the black/yellow was listed as 'emergency kill'. It looks like 'grounding' the black/yellow wire would simply kill the engine. Perhaps my black/white wire is also 'ground'.....and connecting it to the black w/ yellow tracer would also 'kill' my engine? But, does that mean that the purple wire needs to be 'connected' to the black-white all the time?
Any help with this would REALLY be appreciated. Many thanks, Tom D.
Any help with this would REALLY be appreciated. Many thanks, Tom D.