Help needed 93' 90hp evinrude wiring

[Little Crappie]

Hoping a fellow Lou member can tell me where I'm going wrong. I'm trying to get this motor wired up but can't seem to get any ignition. I think I'm missing a ground but to be honest most my experience has been with mercs.

 

I have the harness connected inside the motor and I believe I'm supposed to wire the starter solenoid to the positive lead on the battery

 

Now there's a fuse box with the trim relays which have what seems to be the main power and negative lines. Trim works and there are a black and white wire which I believe are tach wires

 

Now the key is seperate from the binacle control and both have what seems to be negative wires... I connected them together believing this is the neutral safety deal

 

I've tried jumping the solenoid and nothing... maybe I did it wrong but I def. think I'm missing something... any help would be highly appreciated. I think I'm close or something electrical has gone

 

 

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[Xxx]

Is it a V4? Either way look up year and and make they have the full schematics on line, 1 simple check first the ignition wire is fused from the back of the switch to the starter red wire, I had a 88 88/SPL also make sure that lanyard for the man overboard is pushed all the way in, I had to get a new do-hicky as that's why I had intermittent starts, pulled my F'n hair out till I found that little piece of crap had sun fatigue and allowed that button to pop out just a tad. Best of luck pap

[muskiedreams]

Wiring diagram will definitely help but most outboards have very similar starting systems. Sounds like you are saying that the starter is not cranking. It would very helpful to have a multi meter to measure voltage and to check continuity, especially ground continuity. Following wires and taking measurements at key locations should help narrow the problem down to the fault. Checking for clean and tight connections as you go.

 

The skinny wires on the starter solenoid should have 12 volts across them when the key is turned. One wire should get 12 volts from the key switch when turned to the crank position. The other wire should be connected to ground. A continuity check (ohms) can be done to check for that. You need to disconnect the battery for all continuity checks. If there is no voltage across these wires when you turn the key, you need to find out why the key turn is not providing that power. There is probably a 12 volt wire inside the motor (most likely red) going to the wire harness connector (big red connector in top picture) for the controls. It is very possible that the connector has a poor connection. You can look at that (wiggle it and plug it in and out a few times) and check for 12 volts at both ends of the wire harness. Also, there may be an in line fuse holder on that line under the motor cover. If so, check that fuse.

 

You would have to look at the wiring diagram or see where those two black wires go to to try and determine if they are for neutral lockout (to keep starter from energizing if motor is in gear) or driver safety lanyard which may only kill ignition (spark) or both. One could be for neutral lockout and the other might be for the safety lanyard. They should have different color codes (or maybe stripes) or different connectors if they are supposed to go to different places unless they can be switched without consequence. It may be important to have them connected to where they are supposed to be connected. There may also be a tilt switch in the motor that will kill one or both those functions if motor is tilted up too far.

 

Make sure you have battery voltage on the thick power wire going to the solenoid. If you are getting voltage across the skinny solenoid wires when you turn the key and you have power at the thick power wire, the problem could only be the solenoid or the starter. If you have power coming to the thick power wire you should be able to get it to crank if you jump across the two big solenoid terminals. There should be substantial sparks when you do this so be careful there are no gas fumes. If you have power at the solenoid and jumping these terminals does nothing, there is a problem with the starter.

 

These are just some basics. Sometimes they do some crazy things with the wiring and that is where wiring diagrams come in handy if none of these things turn up anything.

[Little Crappie]

Man I appreciate, time to get a meter! Thanks!


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[Xxx]

Take a pair of jumper cables hook the black cable on the motor housing and take a junk screw drive and touch starter stud if she spins over the starter is good, then eliminate the ground cable from the motor housing same deal if she spins the motor over you have a good ground if not that's a problem start looking for a ground problem, that big black wire looks like it belongs on a battery stud, then do as Muskie said about the starter solinoid, some are insulated bases and some aren't either no power or no ground at the sol. Yer dead in the water, I would assume your battery is good??

[Little Crappie]

Yeah battery is good, I just picked up a bolt meter gonna do some test here and see what happens


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[Little Crappie]

Ok so... I've hooked up the negative jumper to the block and it cranks at the key, I don't have to use a screwdriver. So I'm definently thinking it's a ground issue


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[Little Crappie]

So I'm wondering if I'm not grounded at all? Like the positive and negative from the fuse box for the power trim, is that only for power trim? Is the positive lead on the solenoid the positive and I'm also supposed to put on a negative lead somewhere else? Like to starter or something? Starting to feel dumb lol


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[Little Crappie]

And that's probAbly what this terminal is for lol....,


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[muskiedreams]

That might be the terminal. You should definitely have two thick cables that connect to the battery from the motor. One for positive which would be red or marked with red connectors or sleeves at the ends. That one usually goes to a big stud that has other wires that branch out to the three solenoids. There will be other smaller wires for other purposes branching off as well. The one for negative will be black and connect to a big stud that is on the engine block.

 

You still have to make sure that those other two wires that you connected together are connected where they need to be and that the control assembly is properly assembled and operating properly.  They could have something to do with getting spark or neutral sensing. There is, by law, a kill switch that has a lanyard for the driver to connect to themselves so the engine ignition will be disabled if the driver falls out. That switch must be connected and the lanyard properly installed on the switch. There might also be a switch in the control assembly that senses when the the gear shifter is in neutral and won't allow you to crank the engine if it is not. On most engine controls the key has to be pushed in to provide choke or prime when starting cold for extra gas.  You also have to make sure on two stroke motors that you have 2 cycle oil in the oil reservoir.

[Xxx]

If it isn't insulated hang the ground on there, that's probably it. I zoomed in and it appears not to be, that ground wire is heavy and if it reaches bolt her fast and twist the key, also the jumper cable trick tell you everything else is per plan.take that star washer off, see how hot that got. I took a class when in business for my self Delco discontinued the star washer on there heavy duty units, the star washer only put 9 contact points into play, a flat washer is much better than a star washer or nut, flat & tight is right!!

Edited April 9, 2017 by pap

[Xxx]

2 hours ago, Little Crappie said:

So I'm wondering if I'm not grounded at all? Like the positive and negative from the fuse box for the power trim, is that only for power trim? Is the positive lead on the solenoid the positive and I'm also supposed to put on a negative lead somewhere else? Like to starter or something? Starting to feel dumb lol


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Like mentioned some sol. Are insulated but most marine are not and require a ground, that's where that loose ground wire goes.

[Little Crappie]

I appreciate the help from both you guys for sure! I can't believe it was that easy. The trim leads are super heavy duty like your find for starting a motor so I just assumed lol and we all know where that gets ya. I got a nice running motor now! Thanks guys


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[Xxx]

8 minutes ago, Little Crappie said:

I appreciate the help from both you guys for sure! I can't believe it was that easy. The trim leads are super heavy duty like your find for starting a motor so I just assumed lol and we all know where that gets ya. I got a nice running motor now! Thanks guys


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Your most welcom I added to the last post to remove that star washer they are no good the above post tells why. P

[muskiedreams]

17 hours ago, Little Crappie said:

And that's probAbly what this terminal is for lol....,


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That nut you are pointing to looks kind of small (smaller than the ones on the solenoid). The negative cable from the  battery and the ring terminal on the end of it is probably the same size as the ones on the solenoid. The negative battery wire should be attached with a nut to a stud on the block or with a bolt on the block that is the right diameter for the ring terminal hole to fit.