maiden voyage gone wrong

[travisgoff]

Hey guys,

I just took my blackwidow out to get some driving time in today. When I went to start the Port engine, it started an electrical fire behind all of my toggles. Turns out there was a reason the radio didn't work and when I hooked up all the wires it caused a short, funny though, the short didn't go off until I tried to start the engine.

I was able to unscrew the toggle plate and get a pair of cutters on the shorting wire, (it wasn't to hard to see since it was smoking like a chimney and all the insulation was melted off). I managed to get it cut in about 30 seconds from the moment I saw smoke, but unfortunately, there are some other wires that should be replaced now.

The bad thing is that the port engine won't start now, it will crank and I get some spark, (although I don't think its getting enough), and gas is fine. It simply acts like it isn't getting any spark though. I am thinking that the safety lanard thingy might be killing it. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Starbard engine is fine, but for some strange reason the port engine will randomly decide to keep on cranking every now and then even without the key!! Same problem Cuda has.

Does anyone know where I can get a wiring manual for this or at least a generic one. I am going to replace all the toggle wires next weekend, and going to replace all the gauges too, the whole setup just looks like it is thrown together and has been patched numerous times. I just am not sure how the kill switch things work, they seem to go to a little module that can't be opened. Any help you guys could provide would greatly be appreciated.

-Travis

[Newby]

The fact that the port engine cranks whenever it feels like it without use of the key makes it sound like you have melted enough wires and insulation together somewhere for the wires to sharing voltage randomly. This could also account for the loss of juice in the ignition. It may not have enough voltage to start. My kill switch simply cuts off the voltage to the coil. Good luck.

[travisgoff]

I should clarify that the engine doesn't just crank randomly, it just randomly decides that it doesn't want to stop cranking...but probably still the same or simulair issue.

When I pull a plug wire, the spark only hits every couple of seconds, but when I pull one from the working engine, it seems to hit a few times a second, (and the engine starts right away even without one of the cyclinders)

I completely believe there is a electrical problem coming from the switch, but I only see 5 wires all connected to three spots, (the port engine only has 4 wires). One spot goes to the kill switch, One should be ground for the starter relay, one should be postive for the starter relay and the other goes to the magical box, not quite sure what that does.

If I were to strip it all out and start from scratch, so far as the engine is concerned, what would I need to hook up? (Kinda why I am hoping to find a wiring manual so I can see what is what).

-Travis

[MOP]

The site below should help out, it has the engine end wiring with the color codes.

http://www.marinemechanic.com/site/page19.html


Phil