"Todd Fleming" wrote
:
: Goes like this: I put the boat in the water and start her up she
: starts and runs great for a ramdom amount of time. Then for no reason
: the starter will try and start the boat. So I SHUT OFF ALL POWER to
: the boat by using the battery selector I think its called "Perko"
: (name brand). I remove my key from the inginition and turn the "power"
: back on and the starter, may or may not, immediately try to start the
: boat, even if its in gear! This means because it happens ramdomly that
: if I stopped to go swimming and turned the boat off but left it in
: gear it has a good chance of simply starting up while some one is in
: the water! Oh that's safe. I would think there should be some type of
: fail-safe method so the boat doesn't just start on its own whenever it
: wants. I have replaced the selnoid and starter thinking that was the
: problem, but it wasn't, any suggestions? I have been stranded in the
: great lakes a few times and have lost crediability with my boat.

This has nothing to do with the engine, starter or solenoid. It is
a simple short between a power wire and the wire from the ignition
switch to the solenoid. Look at the ignition switch first for an
internal short, then follow the wire back to the solenoid. You'll
find the short.

Heck - it may be no more than that the ignition switch turned in
its mount and the two wires are twisted together enough to
touch.

Dave