Help! Boat stopped running after fairly hard pounding
 

Was out yesterday for a last run of the season foliage run with my wife. Wind kicked up and on the way back were fighting 4 -5 foot waves in a 27 Fountain. Boat was running fine and then a cough and it just died. Checked prop and lower seemed fine. Tried to start, motor cranked over fine but wouldn't start. My novice guess would be ignition or fuel problem. Any hints as to where to look for loose connections in the ignition? Any other advice greatly appreciated.

Motor is genV 502 carb motor with thunderbolt IV ignition.

Sounds electrical. I had it happen once and the ignition wire was off the ignition switch. Also check the main harness plug at the engine for looseness and then trace all the wiring and tug on connections to check them. Good luck!!!

Yup start looking for a wire that worked its way loose. Look at the back of the ignition and make sure that wires are all attached and tight. Make sure that the plug going into the engine is pushed all the way in. Check to make sure that a coil wire did not fall off. That should be a good start anyhow :D:D

Jon

Check out your engine kill switch on the dash. Make sure all wires are connected and then push switch in and out a few times. If this does not work then check all wires at keyed ign. switch. Moisture does funny things to switches.

Good luck,
Dave

Right on!!! check the kill switch and the back of the kill switch, make sure the wires are in it.

First thing is to make sure it is an ignition problem. Pull off a plug wire and put a spark tester on to check for spark. My bet is that you wont have spark. If so, get a test light and check the positive side of the coil for power when the key is in the run position. If that is good, check the negative side for a pulse signal. Then post your results.

Had the same thing happen to me. Check the engine harness plug. Mine have hose clamps on them to keep them in place. I was out in the rough stuff and I looked down and ALL the guages were dead for that engine. Shut it down and it wouldn't restart. Long ride back to port on one engine.

Same thing happened to me too last year---it was rough out and I came down off a hard wave and she started popin' bad. Found that the screw worked its way off the stud and the wire was just barely hangin' on. I was about 12 miles away from the next port and had to idle it in. Coast Guard came saw me after I was about 1/2 mile from port. :rolleyes:

You mentioned you had a carbed engine? There is a slight chance you landed just right that the float bent on impact or the needle and seat are stuck. If all of the other checks (electrical) the guys have recommended don't work, check the float level and fuel flow. When Benny and I were running carbed engines in the F-275 during the 2000 season, we had this happen twice in very rough water, Miami and Point Pleasant. With the EFI engines never had the problem.

Good luck, and let us know what you find.

Steve

This would be pretty obvious and probably not your problem unless yu have a very tight engine compartmet andcant see n there very well,,, but a buddy of mine was running hard and his sea pump belt just popped off,,,, there goes your fuel pump.

Check the connector on the ignition module on the back of the distributor.

You were in 4-5's and your boat cut out on you? Man, I bet that sucked! How did ya make it back?

Thanks for all the help. Went down to the boat ( it is inside rack stored ) at the marina and did a thorough check of all the connections, seapump belt and the engine kill switch. Found the main wiring harness connection loose. Even though it had a hose clamp on it it still had come loose. I may have not tightened it completely after installing an aftermarket exhaust a couple weeks ago. It was pouring rain so I didn't have the boat put in but 95% sure it was the loose plug.

I probably could have found it when I was stranded but the waves made it impossible to get in the engine compartment to see things.

Lucky for me the waves pushed me into shallower water and I threw out an anchor and called seatow. They were there within 40 minutes and back to the marina an hour later. Glad that I joined seatow this year. My wife was glad that I didn't have a meltdown and offered to pay the seatow membership next year:)

Those things suck. I pulled mine out and the little prongs came out!!!! No way to replace it without either splicing (not) or replacing the whole harness. Sometimes just leaning on it set it off. All I could do was jam the pin back in. Drove me nuts.