Boat Help- 25 Mercury- 2001

[Jason R.]

Hey yall, 

     I may be an idiot because I cannot find the fuse for the starter on this thing.  Its a 2001 25 EH Mercury short shaft E-start.  The PO cut the battery cables and I believe I hooked it to the battery backwards because they were not labeled and I guessed wrong.  Now the E starter won't crank and I feel like there has to be a fuse in there.  I see a fuse carrier on the parts diagram but I don't see one in my motor.  Thanks.

[snagged in outlet 3]

Wrench will help you. 

He's cool like that. 

Pete

[fishinwrench]

37 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Wrench will help you. 

He's cool like that. 

Pete

First off you know it has to be in neutral to start, as it has START IN GEAR protection ?   (Sorry, had to ask....some folks don't know that).

The hot side of your starter solenoid will have 3 leads coming off of it, follow the smallest of the 3 red leads and you should find an inline fuse holder, or it may go to a terminal board with a plug-in fuse.  

Here's the bad news though.....Since the battery was hooked up backwards and you tried to start it you more than likely have blown the rectifier, so you'll need one of those now also.   They aren't very expensive on that motor, luckily, but don't run it with a blown rectifier for more than a minute or you'll fry the charge coil..... and they AREN'T cheap.  

[Jason R.]

2 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

First off you know it has to be in neutral to start, as it has START IN GEAR protection ?   (Sorry, had to ask....some folks don't know that).

The hot side of your starter solenoid will have 3 leads coming off of it, follow the smallest of the 3 red leads and you should find an inline fuse holder, or it may go to a terminal board with a plug-in fuse.  

Here's the bad news though.....Since the battery was hooked up backwards and you tried to start it you more than likely have blown the rectifier, so you'll need one of those now also.   They aren't very expensive on that motor, luckily, but don't run it with a blown rectifier for more than a minute or you'll fry the charge coil..... and they AREN'T cheap.  

Thanks Wrench.  I actually haven't even used the electric start- it wasn't really working when I got the motor,   I just bought a 2001 Merc 20hp jet and I am fixing this one up to sell.  The motor runs great btw.  I never use Estart but I figured the next guy might.  I don't really know that I hooked it up backwards- but I probably did.  The starter would spin at first but would not engage.  I figured it was corroded cables or a bad battery.  Now it won't spin so I figured I must have blown a fuse.  I may just yank the estart and sell it as if it never had one- then sell the parts on ebay.  Thing starts on one pull- that battery is just useless weight to me.  I don't know if I have the skill to fix electric gremlins.

[fishinwrench]

I wouldn't remove it.  Alot of guys like electric start on anything over a 9.9 and the motor is worth 200.00 more with it.

You'll be lucky to get 50.00 for the elec.start components on EBay, because they seldom fail. 

[Jason R.]

1 minute ago, fishinwrench said:

I wouldn't remove it.  Alot of guys like electric start on anything over a 9.9 and the motor is worth 200.00 more with it.

You'll be lucky to get 50.00 for the elec.start components on EBay, because they seldom fail. 

Thanks for the advice- I'm sure you are right.  It is a great motor- my new jet starts up no problem- oh and  it is quite a bit different under the cowl.  The fuse is obvious on that one.  BTW you were advising me a few months ago on the bent drive shaft and I got that all fixed per your advice- so thanks Wrench!  I owe you a six pack.