BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Start Motor and Only Hear Tick-Tick-Tick...

[email protected]

wrote:
After leaving the outboard motor sitting for one year, I try to start
it today, and all I hear is tick,tick,tick... (and this is not the
sound of pistons moving around). What has gone wrong?

It is a 1995 Mercury 115hp 2-stroke outboard motor. Last winter, I
winterized it by running it on treated fuel for five minutes, spraying
fogging oil into the sprark plug holes (then working the pistons), and
then leaving a full tank of treated fuel in the fuel tank. The fuel is
still good because I have used all of them in my car for the last month
without any problem. Therefore, I know the fuel is not the problem.

I have followed the instruction in the boatowner manual to start the
motor (put the motor upright, put the lower unit in a bucket of water,
turn on the battery switch, check the kill switch, hand squeeze the
fuel pump ball to hard, hold down the throttle button, turn the
throttle-lever up all the way and then move it back to 1/4 throttle,
turn the power switch and hold it down to start), and I have tried this
for a couple times in two days. All I heard was tick,tick,tick...

Does this have something to do with leaving the motor unused for one
full year?

Does this have something to do with the fact that I didn't spray
fogging oil into the carburetor in last winter? At that time, I didn't
know that the carburetor air inlets are hidden behind the air-silencer;
therefore, I didn't know where to spray.

Does this have something to do with the possibility that the batteries
may not be good enough to work the starter? When I checked the voltage
of the battery right before trying to start the motor, the voltage
looked OK to me (13.24 volt). I stress-tested the batteries last
winter and I found them to be OK (admittedly I am not very good in
doing this). I left them in the boat outdoor through out the winter;
but I re-charged the batteries periodically and checked their voltage
periodically during the winter.

What can cause this problem?

Thanks in advance for any info or suggestion.

Jay Chan

Thanks for everyone who has replied to my post. Yes, the problem was
caused by the bad contact at the batteries. As soon as my wife comes
home, I cleaned the contact at the battery terminals really good. And
I don't hear that tick, tick, tick... any more. You guys are great!

Well, but there are two more problems:

First, the motor doesn't always start right away. I set the throttle
to full and then back down to 1/4 as what the boatowner manual suggests
for starting a cold engine, and I turned and held down the key, and I
heard that the motor started running and burning fuel/oil; but soon
after that the motor would stop (like running for 3 seconds). When
this happens, I would leave the throttle at 1/4, and turned and held
down the key, and I heard the starter worked the piston up and down for
a short while, and then I would hear the tick,tick,tick... (probably I
had tried too soon, and I should have waited for 30 seconds before
trying). After waiting for a while and then trying and trying, finally
the motor started OK. I am wondering why the motor is that hard to get
started. Have I flooded the carburetor and stalled the motor? Thanks
in advance for any info.

Secondly, I didn't see the motor sending out the telltale water stream
showing that the water cooling system was working. Despite the fact
that the motor temperature was not overheating (only run it for 30
seconds or so), I decided to turn off the motor. Because this problem
is not closely related to this post, I will post it in a new post.

Jay Chan