Hi folks,
I did a quick search but didnt turn anything up on this site, so wondering if someone might help me troubleshoot a little—I’m not a mechanic and wont be able to do much, but if it’s a simple fix or something I can check I’d prefer to try that before I drive an hour to leave my boat with the mechanic for a few weeks.
2003 yamaha ox66 200hp. I’ve owned it for several years and it has always run pretty flawlessly. It's always had regular routine maintenance, has newer gas lines, etc so I believe it's in good running order aside from this.
Thursday night after fishing, it stalled on me twice while backing off the dock to trailer my boat. It has never been what I would call ultra smooth at idle, but always run consistently at idle, so I noticed it and decided to note it the next time on the water.
Monday, next time I ran it, it started like always—first turn of the key, fired right up and idled fine. Ran it a couple miles to fish, then another mile or so, then another mile or so, then a couple miles back to the ramp. At the last spot we fished, I turned the key and for a second there was nothing—I think I heard something move like the starter motor was straining but not spinning, so I knew the engine was getting juice but it didn’t turn over. I don’t recall if I turned the key again and it started, or if that was just a “pause” and it started—but it fired up fine and ran fine back to the ramp. When I went to drive the boat up onto the trailer, it would not start. It made a noise so I know it was getting juice, but it sounded like the starter motor wasn’t turning, just “straining”, and it didn’t turn over. Shut down graphs, turned off the power switch to my talon, checked starting battery connections, tried it a few more times, same thing--it would not start. Voltage at this point read 11.4v at the dash—haven’t checked this in a while so not sure how normal that voltage is, but it’s a relatively new battery and I’ve never had any issue with the battery after half a day fishing like this.
I dont know if the noise I heard was the starter motor or the fuel pump, but suffice to say I heard something from the motor, but the starter motor was NOT turning--if anything it was "straining", but the engine was not cranking.
Brought it home and charged up the batteries, and there she sits. Anyone have any ideas on what to look for/what to do to troubleshoot this?