Manually starting a 50 Hp outboard

[motion]

So I had some family up for the week-end and decided to take the pontoon out for a boot in the canal out to Simcoe. As I went to start the engine but the battery was dead. I realized that some-one had left the fish finder on which had drain the battery. My son pulled our other boat around and we manged to boost it for a start.

 

Everything seemed fine cruising down the canal for 10 minutes or so. As I hit the lake, I tried to trim the engine down and I lost power and the engine stopped. I tried to start it but it was dead again??? Stumped I remembered that the engine came with a pull cord. I tried to pull it (as per instructions) but there was noway no how this engine was going to start.

 

Being that we we very close to shore, my son volunteered to jump in, swim to shore and walk home to get the other boat. Well, we enjoyed the weather for about an hour until he came and boosted us again. We made it back to the dock safe.

 

Now, is it just me or is manually starting a newer 50 Hp Suzuki (or equivalent) possible? Am I missing something? Also, you would think after 10-15 minutes of running, I would have enough juice to power trim.

 

For the record, I did check the connections and they all seem clean and tight.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks.

[Roy]

If that battery was dead, 10 minutes is not going to give you much juice. Forget about even thinking about power trim.

[mike rousseau]

i was told by a mechanic if you car/truck baterry died... and you got boosted...youd have to drive for 3-4 hours highway to get it back to 100%

 

and you should have been able to use a rope around the flywheel to pull start it...

[fishnsled]

If that battery was dead, 10 minutes is not going to give you much juice. Forget about even thinking about power trim.

 

Agree. Battery needs to be on a charger for a few hours to charge it right up.

[motion]

i was told by a mechanic if you car/truck baterry died... and you got boosted...youd have to drive for 3-4 hours highway to get it back to 100%

 

and you should have been able to use a rope around the flywheel to pull start it...

 

I had the rope around the flywheel. There was no way I could get past the compression............

[wallyboss]

Was it still in gear??

[Terry]

I have started a 150 hp with the flywheel rope, so

[bubbles]

I had this issue once, after pulling the rope for about 15 minutes and getting really frusteated I realized that I did not have the key turned on....... turned it on and the motor started first pull. 78 merc 50HP

[mike rousseau]

I had this issue once, after pulling the rope for about 15 minutes and getting really frusteated I realized that I did not have the key turned on....... turned it on and the motor started first pull. 78 merc 50HP

 

Diddo

[irishfield]

I hand swing 65's to 200's every day and don't even use a rope...

 

Engine was in gear??

[NAW]

I got a 40hp Norseman in my garage right now. Pulls over no problem. One arm..

[vance]

I did my 3cyl 40hp ONCE to see if I could and it started right up.If your motor is fuel injected you probably couldn't pull start it anyways as there wouldn't be enough juice to boot up the computer in time for it to fire.

 

 

vance

[Tybo]

When the brother and I were kids,Dad wouldn't allow use to use the big boat by are selves

until we could pull the engine over by hand.1974.125hp rude. I was 12.

[Pigeontroller]

I pull started my 90hp 4stroke Yammy recently...Just a matter of getting the cycle just right...Oh, and use your back and legs...

[Nipfisher]

I used to start my 1986 Mariner 40hp with the pull rope all the time.

[Sinker]

My 40hp mariner is manual start only. My kids can have it when they can start it. I do it with one arm all the time.

 

S.

[DanD]

The Joys of electronics; Vance is likely spot on that there wasn’t enough power left in the battery to power up the ECU (Computer)

As for running the engine for 10 minutes and the battery still being very weak. The charging coils likely only put out 10 – 20 amps, depending on rpm. That would take better then an hour at a fairly high rpm to bring the battery to a usable level and run the electronics during starting.

To prove this out, try pull starting the motor with a charged battery?

 

Don’t ask me how a newer manual start motor that doesn’t use an external battery or have a charging system get around this; maybe they still use magneto for voltage and a basic ignition module?

 

Dan.

[motion]

For the record, the motor was not in gear. I didn't have a ton of room to pull freely on the pontoon but found it near impossible with a short rope to get it past the initial compression.

 

I am going to try this again in the next couple of week-ends to see if there is any other way to do this. I thought I may have been missing something like a magic "de-compressing" button.

[whitbyboatguy]

Your efforts may be totally futile. Yes, it seems dumb but a lot of motors will not start without a fully charged battery. They wont run off of a boost either because they need the battery to keep going (extra dumb).

 

So if your battery is dead and there is not enough juice in your trolling battery your boat is dead in the water unless you are real good with that single tiny oar you have to avoid a ticket.

 

This just isn't a big motor thing, the 40HPs are included. Read your manual and buy a 2 way radio.

Edited August 17, 2011 by whitbyboatguy