1997 Sport Antique no start

[candybarr]

Just got the boat out of the shop for a tune up. When I got home, I hooked up the fake lake and started imminently. I proceeded to try to engage the drive, as to mimic growing forward in the water, the boat immediately died and will not start. The shop I took it to is about and hour and half away and would like to see if I maybe blew a safety fuse or if I’m missing anything. The engines fuel pump is priming and when cranking I can hear it is trying to start. The shop I took it to gave it new spark plugs, distributer cap and wires.

Anything helps thank you.

[Rednucleus]

Does it have a safety lanyard?
Fuel inj or carb?

[candybarr]

FI, yes safety lanyard was attached. Somehow someway was able to get it started last night!

[bturner]

Putting an inboard in gear while on land is not a good idea (ask me how I know). The boat uses water fed or leaking into the stuffing box to lubricate the packing shaft or pack-less shaft and can cause damage or at a minimum a loud noise.

That said, If you're paying someone to change wires and plugs I'm thinking you may not be comfortable troubleshooting this issue. The only quick, non-technical things I can think of to try would be to be sure the boat is in neutral by wiggling the throttle lever while at 12 o'clock to ensure you're not having an issue with the neutral safety switch.

As to why it might have just stopped when you put it in gear.... I've seen it where the prop shaft was, for a better term. stuck in the packing material from drying out, but in those cases the boat would fire right up in neutral.

There are lots of things you could do to troubleshoot this but they would require being comfortable working on the engine yourself. Past a more technical approach I thing Red's suggestion and mine are good places to start. One other possible thing to look at would be the main fuse on the engine. There should be a 40 - 50 amp breaker on the engine which has a red reset button. You may want to check that to see if it somehow popped. It should look something like this....

[candybarr]

I appreciate your advice, this boat was a gift from my father in law, he insisted it went into the shop (because he overheated the flip out of it on the water) luckily with no major mechanical issues the shop was able to get the motor running. I am very comfortable in doing this kind of work myself, however I do not have a timing light or anything to determine if the shop timed the distributor properly. I hooked the boat up to a battery charger and let it sit for quite some time, I began to remove spark plugs and plug them into there coils outside of the cylinder heads to check for spark manually, to which I found absolutely none. However after I put the plug back in and after some hard cranking it finally started? It ran for about 20-30 minutes on the fake lake and ran good. It had a very choppy idle and as it began to warm up it would stall, but then start up just fine.

this shop apparently replaced some seal responsible for the prop? I’m not to familiar with marine terminology. I didn’t realize the correct way to rev the engine up without engaging the prop, hence why it stalled for some reason and wouldn’t start again( as my OG post stated) I’m worried during that repair something was damaged or not assembled correctly and will do the same thing on the water. What do you think?

thank you!

[malibud]

id start with fuel pressure . harbor freight gauge screw it in the the rail there's a port there

[jpwhit]

Don't put a boat in gear out of the water. The strut bushing is lubricated by the water. Put it in the water and do a little testing on the trailer or close by before you get far away.