by Paul Hutchins
(Jacksonville, FL USA)
Just after launching the boat an idling to open water, on powering up the dies. There is no power to the engine. Cannot start or use tilt-trim. Used trolling motor to return to launch. On the way back, my partner played with the battery switch and tilt-trim and it was able to tilt the motor up for just a few seconds. Still no power to the motor. Returned home and the motor tilt-trim works fine and motor starts. The switch was old and definitely need replacing. Out of caution, I replaced the switch, all cables between the two starting batteries and the starting cable to the engine. Everything works fine until, while the engine is running, I used the tilt-trim on the remote throttle and the engine dies. It started up again right away and then I couldn't duplicate the problem. I removed the throttle cover and there is no obvious problem there. I'm wondering if it is the tilt-trim relay, but have no idea how that could cause the engine to die. Any ideas?