1998 S225TXRW - Main oil tank not sending , motor won't fire(no fuel)

[troutdiggler]

So I've had this motor for quite some time and tinker with it as needed. The other day I was offshore and the oil alarm starting sounding, the motor tank was setting the alarm and barely any oil had been used from the main tank. No big deal we had plenty of oil and every 10 miles filled up the motor tank.

Troubleshoooting.

1. Tried the switch on land with key on.
2. Tested Resevoir tank pump - working
3. Changed filter on tank - tank was pretty clean
4. Traced wires from Motor tank down to the wiring harness area. Some corroded connections.
5. Repaired corroded connections. Motor won't start. No oil transfer from reservoir to motor.

I had the no start problem once before and I tried a few things until I took it to the mechanic. He found the corroded connections and repaired them, albeit a little cheapy, no heat shrink connectors just some crappy harbor freight connectors. Anyway it ran and he's pretty damn good so I'd go back to him but a keys trip is fast approaching and I won't make it in to him before then.

Hypothesis/Conclusions:

I think I may have some bad wires in the harness due to cowling not latching for a few years in the back and letting saltwater in.

*Dig through the wiring harness looking for corrosion and have to to tape it all back up after repairs or just buy a new harness and hope its in good shape?
$100 bucks for a used harness seen below to show affected areas.

After repairing the connections, there was very little left on the box doohickey(anyone know what that box is) that the corroded and repaired and corroded wires were on see picture:s-l16001.jpg

I read these as something to do with the trim, which I just replaced the PTT motor, but the wire looked pretty brown where the connections were corroded. I know I could do a bunch of testing on the wires to determine the bad wire but the new harness looks pretty plug and play compared to 3 hours of reading a meter and schematics. I think the reservoir oil pump wires lie in this harness somewhere too. The Black wire may have broke a ground which doesn't allow the VST pump to turn on which I believe is the not starting issue. It turns over great but doesn't get fuel.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks

[boscoe99]

So I've had this motor for quite some time and tinker with it as needed. The other day I was offshore and the oil alarm starting sounding, the motor tank was setting the alarm and barely any oil had been used from the main tank. No big deal we had plenty of oil and every 10 miles filled up the motor tank.

Troubleshoooting.

1. Tried the switch on land with key on. Did the pump run and transfer oil?
2. Tested Resevoir tank pump - working
3. Changed filter on tank - tank was pretty clean why?
4. Traced wires from Motor tank down to the wiring harness area. Some corroded connections.
5. Repaired corroded connections. Motor won't start. No oil transfer from reservoir to motor.

I had the no start problem once before and I tried a few things until I took it to the mechanic. He found the corroded connections and repaired them, albeit a little cheapy, no heat shrink connectors just some crappy harbor freight connectors. Anyway it ran and he's pretty damn good so I'd go back to him but a keys trip is fast approaching and I won't make it in to him before then.

Hypothesis/Conclusions:

I think I may have some bad wires in the harness due to cowling not latching for a few years in the back and letting saltwater in.

*Dig through the wiring harness looking for corrosion and have to to tape it all back up after repairs or just buy a new harness and hope its in good shape?
$100 bucks for a used harness seen below to show affected areas.

After repairing the connections, there was very little left on the box doohickey(anyone know what that box is) that the corroded and repaired and corroded wires were on see picture:

I read these as something to do with the trim, which I just replaced the PTT motor, but the wire looked pretty brown where the connections were corroded. I know I could do a bunch of testing on the wires to determine the bad wire but the new harness looks pretty plug and play compared to 3 hours of reading a meter and schematics. I think the reservoir oil pump wires lie in this harness somewhere too. The Black wire may have broke a ground which doesn't allow the VST pump to turn on which I believe is the not starting issue. It turns over great but doesn't get fuel.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks

Do you have the service manual? There are diagrams in there that will explain the starter motor circuit, the ignition circuit and the oil transfer circuit. Without those diagrams I don't see you being able to get to where you need to be from where you are now.

With respect to the oil transfer system, there are four wires to the remote tank and pump. Two to operate the pump and two to tell the CDI assembly if there is sufficient oil in the tank. Have you verified that the oil pump will run and transfer oil when the override toggle switch is used to force oil from the tank?

You say that the motor won't fire because of a lack of fuel. Does the fuel pump run? Is there fuel pressure built up within the fuel rails?

That black box appears to be the diode assembly. Related to the trim and tilt system.

[boscoe99]

Having thought about it a while, if the present harnesses have been compromised with salt water, and are known to be corroded, I would replace them. Otherwise you will be fighting issues the rest of your life with the motor. Corrosion rarely heals itself. Only gets worse over time.

[Jason2tpa]

I think I may have some bad wires in the harness due to cowling not latching for a few years in the back and letting saltwater in

Agree will Boscoe....with saltwater corrosion you can't splice out the area of bad wire and expect conductivity to resume as normal. If saltwater seeped into the wire shield then it was by way of the terminal connection...in which case the entire wire is shot, end to end.

And of course, no reason to tackle the oil harness issue until you've fixed the cowling issue.

[99yam40]

out in the plants we had 125VDC control power on some systems that reacted with some wiring insulation over the years producing a conduction green goo that oozed out at the terminal blocks running down them shorting across terminals causing bad things to happen.
took a long time to figure that all out.

but salt water running up inside copper wiring is not good also

[troutdiggler]

Thanks for the input guys! I went and picked up the used wiring harness, about a 2 hour drive each way, but didn't have to wait until next week to get it. I slowly disassembled the old wire harness from the motor and fed the new one back through connecting what I could as I went. I found where the splice was done earlier in its life, it was on the main relay which used to have a 2 pin connector, the yellow wire had corroded in the harness and I found the culprit. I will upload some pics later, gotta put it all back together. The motor fired right up when I tested it, issue #1 solved. The switch for oil transfer on the motor made the remote oil pump run, so a good sign! I'll have to run several miles to make sure its pumping oil without testing the electrical, but I think the problems should be resolved.

For those attempting this, feed the port side wiring through the appropriate routing and connect the CDI back up and then work back to the trim relay area, and finally connect all the boat connections. Its always nice to do the repairs and have success!