Hello All,
I had to get a tow yesterday from a buddy, when the boat would not start. It's a '98 Bennington with a 50hp Honda 4 stroke. At the slip it fired up and we went out a mile or so to fish. After deciding to move, I got it to crank twice, but when I put it in gear it would shut off. Once we got pulled back to the slip we tried a few more times and it did crank but then died in gear. As we were leaving, I noticed that a dock rope had tangled in the prop, which makes sense for why it shut off in gear. Untangled it, and tried to crank a few more times with no success.
When I turned the key on the water and back at the slip, all gauges would come on, and I'd hear a faint single click sound back toward the motor, but there was no kind of turn over. This happened about a week ago and I jiggled the throttle a little bit, as if it had been in gear, and then it cranked right up and ran all day, even with me turning it off several times. The neutral button seemed to be sticking down a bit yesterday. Also, the kill switch/emergency lanyard is not in and hasn't been in for a few months with no trouble.
Any ideas on troubleshooting? Is it just not getting into neutral for some reason or is there a fuse/breaker somewhere I should check? Another thought- often times when I crank it and give it a little gas, all of the gauges seem to trip (if I give it a lot of gas to crank) but the boat runs great.
Thank you for any advice, I really appreciate it!
Mark
I had to get a tow yesterday from a buddy, when the boat would not start. It's a '98 Bennington with a 50hp Honda 4 stroke. At the slip it fired up and we went out a mile or so to fish. After deciding to move, I got it to crank twice, but when I put it in gear it would shut off. Once we got pulled back to the slip we tried a few more times and it did crank but then died in gear. As we were leaving, I noticed that a dock rope had tangled in the prop, which makes sense for why it shut off in gear. Untangled it, and tried to crank a few more times with no success.
When I turned the key on the water and back at the slip, all gauges would come on, and I'd hear a faint single click sound back toward the motor, but there was no kind of turn over. This happened about a week ago and I jiggled the throttle a little bit, as if it had been in gear, and then it cranked right up and ran all day, even with me turning it off several times. The neutral button seemed to be sticking down a bit yesterday. Also, the kill switch/emergency lanyard is not in and hasn't been in for a few months with no trouble.
Any ideas on troubleshooting? Is it just not getting into neutral for some reason or is there a fuse/breaker somewhere I should check? Another thought- often times when I crank it and give it a little gas, all of the gauges seem to trip (if I give it a lot of gas to crank) but the boat runs great.
Thank you for any advice, I really appreciate it!
Mark
Last edited: