Does a 1983 Sea Ray 225 Cuddy Cabin Have a Kill Switch? Diagnosing a click but no start issue.

[Chris Cro09]

I am starting to restore a 1983 22 foot Sea Ray CC. It currently does not start and has sat for a few years. I was told it ran fine before. I am currently in the process of removing the starter/solenoid to see if thats the culprit but someone said, do you have the kill switch dongle inserted? I do not see one anywhere and was wondering if I am just blind. When I try and start it, I hear a single click and nothing else happens...

 

[scoflaw]

Not the kill switch. Pull the spark plugs and try to Bar it over

 

[JHornsby3]

I went through something similar with our small boat. Turned out to be the solenoid. It would click every time I turned the key but wouldn't engage the Bendix. The boat would start fine and when doing the spring clean up, wouldn't. But, turned out that the contacts corroded on the inside. The case came apart when I tried to remove the nuts from the posts.

 

[Fahrphrompuken]

I doubt there's a kill switch (other than the key switch). Simple question, is the battery good, charged? Are the positive, and ground cable connections making good contact?
Pulling the starter out and testing will more than likely give you the answer. As mentioned before, the solenoid, or the Bendix solenoid could be the culprit if the battery is fine.
Does it have the big direct-drive starter? If so, replacing it with a gear reduction starter would be a good upgrade. It made a huge difference in my MC260, haven't any cranking issues since, and it doesn't load down the battery nearly as much.

 

[JHornsby3]

Wait! It's an 83. The starter will have the contact washer, a brass washer, for making power contact. Those do and will cause the symptoms your having. Like said above ^^^, the gear reduction starters are a better replacement. And they don't have the same electrical issues older, rebuildable ones had.

 

[DaveKamp]

There's also a Neutral Start Switch. Gotta be in neutral, and if the switch is stuck, even if it's in neutral, it might not crank.

If it's a MerCruiser, then you probably have a slave solenoid mounted to one of the exhaust manifolds, and THAT solenoid directs battery power to the COIL of the starter solenoid... the slave solenoid concept helps prevent system problems caused by voltage drop under cranking, from long wiring run from engine compartment to helm.