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Late 90's 50hp 2 stroke won't start after pulling deadman switch

T

Thaggerty

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I have a 14ft whaler with a late 90's mercury carbureted 50hp 2 stroke. Today while I was running at a fast idle I accidentally pulled the Deadman switch and killed the motor, after which it failed to start. I cranked a bunch, put in some new fuel thinking maybe thef uel Guage wasn't workg, no life. After getting towed back to the Marina, I noticed when it cranks over, a slick of fuel/oil spreads out from the exhaust, along with bits of what looks like soot.

Unfortunately I didn't have the tools to pull the spark plugs and have a look, but I was able to determine that it was in neutral when starting. I pulled out the Deadman switch, and superficially it looks fine, but I didn't feel confident in my abilities to pull it apart, so I left it be. I'm thinking I may have flooded the engine badly, and/or the kill switch is stuck open.

Any thoughts? I'll be going back to work on it in the morning hopefully.
 
Unhook the two wires on your kill switch (deadman's switch) and keep them isolated from each other (and don't let them touch the block either - a wrap of electrical tape over each would do the trick and then try and start. You may have toasted the switch when you accidentally pulled it. And since that's the only thing you "touched" from when it ran and then failed to run, that's where I would start - although, you may have flooded it by killing the ignition abruptly, but that should cleared in fairly short order...
 
It was the Deadman switch. The internals had built up a bit of corrosion, and failed to close again when the switch was flipped back. The mechanic cleaned it out and got it running, and a new switch should be coming in a week or so.

I ended up calling a mechanic because when I took the switch out there were 3 wires running to it, and it was all sealed up and so I couldn't get it apart with my normal screw drivers. There's one more piece to add to the checklist.
 
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