Can't start the boat

[awthacker]

Kevin, I only got to step 1 and there was exactly 10V between + battery and + starter. My father-in-law was the helper and he said the solenoid is bad because it stayed energized after he turned the key off. It caused the battery to smoke until he turned it off at the selector switch. It also has some stripping on the grounding post, so just needs replacement.

Lee, it definitely looks complex. I sprayed deep creep in all cylinders. Tried turning the prop... no luck. Then worked our way to the flywheel and couldn't turn it either.

The history on it is this: We moved to a new home in late September, so I pretty much quit fishing for two months. I've never had trouble with this engine since I got it in February.

Last succesful trip was labor day, so 9/5.

Next trip was on a friends boat, then we attempted to run offshore on 11/14. I had trouble starting it the night before, so I put some new plugs in it and sprayed deep creep. The boat started fine, but wouldn't run much higher than idle and wouldn't rev up. We take it back home and scrub the dive trip. Next day it sounds really good on the hose, so I'm believing that the floats were sticking and may have freed themselves up (this is a friend's suggestion).

Then my Dad comes in for a week at Thanksgiving. We planned on launching the boat on Wednesday, so 11/23, for a test run. Boat won't start, we guess bad battery and plug in the charger. Next day, we try to start it again and notice the battery getting hot. No time to mess with it that day and some construction began at the new house the following week, so I haven't gotten back to it until this weekend.

This morning my father-in-law was over and he kinda took over the diagnosis. He says there must be water getting in from the cooling system. He's surprised the cylinder could've been compromised without the overheat siren, but definitely feels like that cylinder is stuck due to corrosion. He says there's no point in trying to free up the flywheel because there is definitely a problem in there that we need to fix. He told me to slowly take that side apart and find out where the leak is and hope it's just a gasket. He wasn't very familiar with this engine type, though. Said his neighbor took one apart and couldn't get it back together.