Engine won't start and alarm buzzer goes off.

Aernout

New Member
Nov 18, 2019
4
Boat Info
Sea ray 220 2013, Mercruiser 5.0 inboard.
Engines
Mercruiser 5.0
Hi all,

First time on this forum so please bare with me :), me and 3 friends share a Searay 220 and last month I was out on the water when we wanted to put the engine in forward it suddenly went off and it was impossible to start. All we got was a single "tick" and a alarm buzzer going off. Display test shows all ok.

Boat went for maintenance and they replaced the throttle cable but now the guys who fixed the boat brought it back yesterday without issues but I went to check it out today and same issue.

Maintenance is on the way they say its a dead battery but first of all what happened on the first occasion doesn't make sense to me for a dead battery that the engine goes off, I hope it just me.??

Boat has 2 batteries, to start and sail out we always put it on both, when ankered out with music it goes on 2 mostly and then we use 1 to start it. When started we put it back in both for charging.

Anyone has experienced this before? The display on the boat does not show any faults. I can forward the alarm sound by email if someone would like to hear it as I recorded it on my phone.

Thanks a lot all!!
 
It would help to know more about your boat... year, motor, and outdrive. These details should be in your profile.

Welcome to CSR!
 
It would help to know more about your boat... year, motor, and outdrive. These details should be in your profile.

Welcome to CSR!

Thanks!

Boat is from 2013, Mercruiser 5.0 inboard engine. For the out drive I need to have a look on the boat.
 
It bugs me to hear when car and boat owners have issues and when they take it in the mechanics do work change out parts etc. w/o a proper diagnosis. Instead of mechanics they should be called parts changers instead. (end rant)

If it was my boat I would check out the neutral cutoff switch. I have 98 twin 5.0's with Alpha outdrives.

Some engines have a neutral cutoff switch that goes bad or needs to be adjusted to work properly. If your engine has one there's some good youtube videos that goes through the steps on how to diagnose and adjust but your mechanic should have done this when the throttle cable is replaced.
 
The neutral cut off switch is the same as the dead man switch? Dead man switch works fine as when I have the alarm and the switch goes to off it becomes quiet, when I put the dead man switch back in run then the alarm comes back on.

I have also been moving the throttle lever to make sure it’s in neutral.

Mechanics are here in 15-20 min with a jumpstarter let’s see what happens..
 
The cut off switch is on engines with alpha out drives. It momentarily cuts the engine when shifting to make it easier to engage.

Bravo outdrives do not have this switch.
 
The neutral cut off switch is the same as the dead man switch?

No. The neutral cut off switch is mounted on the engine at the same location as the forward and reverse cables. When going from forward to reverse the switch is activated momentarily (unnoticeably) to stall the motor so the gears can be changed.

If faulty (or out of adjustment) it can stall the engine when switching gears or keep it from starting.

Please report back on what the mechanic finds.

As stated above if you have a Bravo drive it doesn't have this switch. A Bravo drive has the dual rotating prop set up.
 
Last edited:
Terminology is a bit off here. There is a neutral safety switch, which prevents the motor from starting in gear.
Then on the alpha drives there is a shift interrupt switch that kills the engine for a moment so you can get the shifter out of gear
 
Thanks all! I am such a noob in this.

Issue got solved, problem was the cable from both selector for the batteries that had corrosion damage. Cable changed and works like a charm.

boat has a dual prop so that means it’s a bravo drive then.

Thanks for the info everyone :)
 
Guess I'm a little late to the party!

boat has a dual prop so that means it’s a bravo drive then.
FYI, you have a Bravo III... there is also a Bravo I and II which both have a single prop.

All Merc's (and pretty much all brands, if not all) have a neutral safety switch (see Scof's explanation).
 

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