Stupid kill switch... DOH!!!!!!

[Tanner]

Was cruising along Sat. after picking up some friends at the Dock and got lunged forward and the boat totally lost power. CRAPPPPP I think to myself. I notice my speedo was stuck at 43, where I had been cruising at. Scratch my head thinking I blew I fuse or relay went out or something. I checked the breakers, all were fine. Motor would crank, just wouldn't fire. Check my batteries and everything is fine there. So I pull a spark plug wire and check for spark, and NOTHING. GREATTTTT. I had replaced the rotor and cap recently, so figured I'd better make sure nothing came loose. Everything's fine there. Start thinking maybe a relay got hot or something along those lines as the stuck speedometer is just glaring at me. So I'm sitting there, waiting for a boat to drive by so I can flag it down for a tow. I'm anchored in really good (actually to damn good, but thats another story), so I'm going no where. Getting set for a long sit, when light bulb. Jiggle the safety/kill switch... motor fires right up and speedo drops back to 0.

The point of all this is I know we have some new boaters here recently, so just something to double check if you ever have a motor that just dies. It's such an easy thing that even us experienced guys can totally forget it. It should have been my first check really.... just totally overlooked it.

That was my DOHHHH moment from this weekend!

[ajholt7]

I'm not gonna laugh or it will happen to me next time out.

[Tanner]

LOL. Yeah it's Karma, cause I've hopped on other peoples boats who were stranded, jiggled their's and got their boats to start right up. Chuckled to myself as I drove off. Now it happened to me and It was the last thing I checked!

One of my friends was giving me crap the whole time, so I had to look at him and say ok genius, where was your brilliant mind the whole 15 mins we were stranded? He just kind of shut up.... and mumbled, "Yeah I've done it too" LOL.

[dingleberry]

LOL. Yeah it's Karma, cause I've hopped on other peoples boats who were stranded, jiggled their's and got their boats to start right up. Chuckled to myself as I drove off. Now it happened to me and It was the last thing I checked!

Well, of course it was. I sure hope you wouldn't keep checking for the problem after you solved it.

[somebodyelse5]

K, someone enlighten me haha. killswitch?


Iv had a few of those. I couldnt get the motor to turn over, assumed batteries were totally shot. Pulled the battery cover off and get the gel pack out and ready......light bulb. The boat was in gear haha. batteries were perfect! DOH!

[Tanner]

Iv had a few of those. I couldnt get the motor to turn over, assumed batteries were totally shot. Pulled the battery cover off and get the gel pack out and ready......light bulb. The boat was in gear haha. batteries were perfect! DOH!

Yeah my buddy who's a full time mechanic did that one the other day.... I looked in his boat and voila.... throttle was engaged. LOL.

Kill switch / Lanyard Switch / Safety Switch, it's all the same. In front of your throttle a few inches, there's a red lanyard. Your supposed to wear it for safety and it shuts your motor off in the event your thrown from the boat while it's running. So that you don't get cut up. Like a Jet ski's key. In reality, no one wears them except the go fast guys, bass boats, and jet skis.

[Dave S]

I have been boating for 25 years and done all of the above at some point in time. We all can use a DOH moment when we can laugh at ourselves later.

[somebodyelse5]

Im almost positive my boat doesnt have one??

[ajholt7]

Im almost positive my boat doesnt have one??

Surely it does. I have never seen a boat without one.

[Tanner]

Surely it does. I have never seen a boat without one.

It's possible he doesn't. For a while Tige wasn't putting them on. They aren't required in every state.

[jake's02-22i]

I don't have one. mine is a 2002 also.

[ajholt7]

It's possible he doesn't. For a while Tige wasn't putting them on. They aren't required in every state.

I stand corrected.