Kill switch not killing

Blankton · 28 May 2019, 07:24

Hi all. I noticed yesterday that my kill switch lanyard had been pulled accidentally, but I was still merrily sailing on!

If I push in the switch manually it kills the engine. So I believe the actual wiring and contacts work as they should.

I wonder if a bit of lubricant might free it up. Or do they have a spring that might have broken? There is still some "spring" to it, just not enough it seems!

If I Google kill switch there's loads of stuff, but mostly to do with wiring. I'm struggling to find this issue.

If I try to lube it, would wd40, PTFE spray or even a dry graphite spray be best?

charliee · 28 May 2019, 07:34

Don’t mess with trying to sort it, I would fit a new assembly, once they start to go wrong the chance of a repeat is very much higher.

boristhebold · 28 May 2019, 07:35

It's always advisable to check kill switches work from time to time, your problem is probably a combination of salt build up and or a weak spring inside the actual switch, if it were me I would not bother with trying to remove any salt build up cos its probably inside the switch, I would replace the kill switch with a genuine new unit. A pretty easy job to replace.

Blankton · 28 May 2019, 07:50

Thanks. Sounds sensible. I am sure it's something I can do, when I'm home with all my tools. I was only really looking for a quick fix as I'm holiday for a week and have the boat in the water and want to use it.

I've found an outboard repair shop a few miles away in Falmouth who I'll try later, but it's half term week here and I bet they have every man and his dog just wanting a quick job done!

paintman · 28 May 2019, 09:14

Robin Curnow in Penryn by any chance?

Blankton · 28 May 2019, 09:27

That's the place. I just googled "outboard repair Falmouth" and it came up. I'll give them a call and see what they say.

Pipster100 · 28 May 2019, 21:29

Hi, where do you have the boat? I live just outside Falmouth and launch/recover my RIB at Mylor, I don't have a spare kill switch but could very easily help you out. Let me know if you require some help.

Blankton · 28 May 2019, 22:23

Thanks for the kind offer. I've had a play with the kill switch today. It seems that the housing has been cross threaded and isn't holding tight.
I now have another issue, that it's bogging down under load, so I've taken it to a mechanic. We will see if it's worth saving!

Fenlander · 29 May 2019, 00:19

I forget Blankton… what's your outboard?

Blankton · 29 May 2019, 06:29

It's an evinrude 9.9 2 stroke. Obviously it's quite old, but I thought it would be a good combination of power to weight.

I brought it recently from a bloke who had a workshop at home. He had 20 or so 2 strokes in various states of repair or for sale and seemed very knowledgeable and genuine. (I am now questioning this! lol)

It apparently came fully serviced and ready to go. To be fair when I picked it up he was careful to have me start it and stop it several times. Test forward and reverse etc. But you can't really give it full beans in a bucket!

I'll be getting in touch with him, but he's near me in Birmingham, and that's not much good when I'm in Cornwall.

Phil and Jane · 01 June 2019, 09:31

Evinrude kill switches rely on the spring returning the key to off. Ours does and so have all the other Evinrude kill switches that I've seen anyway. Dirt gets in to the gap around the barrel then the strength of the spring is overcome by the friction of the dirt. This happened to ours a few years ago. A liberal dose of WD40 sorted it out and a few drops every few months has stopped it ever happening again.
You might find that this sorts it out. Best of luck, Phil.

Blankton · 01 June 2019, 13:16

I've taken it apart. The switch is as Phil and Jane have described. It would be an easy fix.....However, a little investigation shows that the outer housing which holds the spring mechanism has broken. Therefore it can't be tightened into position - well, it can, but there is only about half a thread holding it, so it vibrates loose. For a one off demo (i.e. when I brought the engine) it works fine. But after a bit of running (or bouncing about on the boat) it works loose. Where it is broken the plastic appears to have been filed or dressed in some way, so I am convinced the seller was aware of this. I have emailed them and got no reply.

I'm not very pleased as selling something with a bodged kill switch seems pretty irresponsible!

I'll take some photos and post up when I have it out later.

I also developed a misfire. As I was a few hundred miles away from home and the seller I took it to a local engineer who found that one of the coils had worked loose and melted the insulation where it touched the block.

Finally, it is a total pain to start and floods very easily. I suspect that it might have a carb problem. It does run ok when eventually running though.

Basically, it seems to be a bit of a nail. I paid a good price from it as the seller (who refurbs engines from his home workshop) described it as fully serviced.

Fenlander · 01 June 2019, 13:25

>>>I brought it recently from a bloke who had a workshop at home. He had 20 or so 2 strokes in various states of repair or for sale and seemed very knowledgeable and genuine.

Some such blokes seem to believe their own PR! TBH I'm really wary of such sellers... far rather buy from a private owner who knows little and hasn't fiddled.

Having said that I fall into the "don't buy from me" category if judged by the above with all the work I do on OBs... but I try to do it by the book with correct info to hand and I'm not afraid of spending out on proper (i.e. expensive) parts where needed.

Blankton · 01 June 2019, 16:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenlander

>>>I brought it recently from a bloke who had a workshop at home. He had 20 or so 2 strokes in various states of repair or for sale and seemed very knowledgeable and genuine.

Some such blokes seem to believe their own PR! TBH I'm really wary of such sellers... far rather buy from a private owner who knows little and hasn't fiddled.

Having said that I fall into the "don't buy from me" category if judged by the above with all the work I do on OBs... but I try to do it by the book with correct info to hand and I'm not afraid of spending out on proper (i.e. expensive) parts where needed.

If it was a car I'd not have touched a small dealer like that with a bargepole. I always buy private. To be honest, I didn't realise he was a dealer as the advert said "Freshwater use only" so I assumed it was someone who'd owned it from new to make such a statement - I was a bit pissed off when I walked in and saw all the other engines and realised that he was a dealer, but I'd drove 70 odd miles and he seemed ok.

I'm going to try trading standards. I know for cars, these guys that are small time dealers and try and make out that it's a "private sale" "sold as seen" etc are on their hit list. I assume it would be the same with someone doing the same with outboards.

Pikey Dave · 01 June 2019, 21:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blankton

If it was a car I'd not have touched a small dealer like that with a bargepole. I always buy private. To be honest, I didn't realise he was a dealer as the advert said "Freshwater use only" so I assumed it was someone who'd owned it from new to make such a statement - I was a bit pissed off when I walked in and saw all the other engines and realised that he was a dealer, but I'd drove 70 odd miles and he seemed ok.

I'm going to try trading standards. I know for cars, these guys that are small time dealers and try and make out that it's a "private sale" "sold as seen" etc are on their hit list. I assume it would be the same with someone doing the same with outboards.

Didn’t call him Lee by any chance??

Blankton · 01 June 2019, 22:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Didn’t call him Lee by any chance??

He was in a small village near kidminster.

Pikey Dave · 02 June 2019, 09:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blankton

He was in a small village near kidminster.

Ahh, I think this particular chancer was based in Kent.

Fenlander · 02 June 2019, 15:05

He could have been chucked out by the Kent massive and decamped "to the north"??

Blankton · 03 June 2019, 20:21

For anyone that is interested, here is a video of the kill switch. I have found that the outer housing screws in, before eventually popping back out when (I believe) that it gets to the end of the thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPGc...ature=youtu.be

When I remove the housing I can see that the end is all rough and broken.

I am assuming that this is not supposed to look like this. I'd guess that there should be a flat end or a flange on the end of this housing that it can tighten against.

Fenlander · 03 June 2019, 20:25

Sadly I'm not good with Evinrude and Johnson but that does look broken off??