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Last week for our boating clubs annual fall workparty we decided to run up on our whaler a 17' Montauk instead of taking the big boat. Left the marina at 9AM, a beautifull BC fall day, ocean is flat. Life is good. Did our thing at the work party and about 4PM said lets go home. Hit the starter and it made the greatest jingley jangeley metalic sound we ever heard. Oh, oh, not a good day now. After a bit of deliberation and vocal help from 5 other guys I removed the cover and tried again. Ah ha problem evident. The bendix at the top of the starter is trying to win the think you can dance contest bouncing around on the top of the starter shaft.
Ok, think. I have only owned this boat for 2 years. Back in the memory came, "can't I manually pull start this 115HP 2 stroke V4?"
The 5 expert long time ocean boaters around me piped in with "you got to be kidding-- a motor that big, -- manual start -- forget it".
Let's remove the plastic cover of the big gear wheel. Well, look at that, 2 rope notches. "Anybody got a rope to fit that?" and 2 min later I was rapping it around the big wheel.
"No Way" said my on lookers.
Gave it a pull. Lots of resistance as it bumped through about 100 degrees. "Ya know that almost started" says me. To my fellow helper in the boat "hold that choke switch up" and I pulled again. rrrrrrruuuuummmmm it started.
So, to those that might of wonderd what they would do if the electric start failed, better carry a length of pull start rope.
Roy Warner
1983 17 Montauk - 1998 Yamaha 115 V4 2 stroke
I used to rope start my Johnson 150 very time the battery went dead. It was easy. I remain perplexed why so many folks think it is difficult.
The key it getting the motor prepped with choke or primer than only trying to pull through one compression stroke. You are not going to spin the flywheel like your lawnmower.
As you learned, they can be manually started. Now for the caution. At the ramp I have seen many times guys who tried unsuccessfully with the battery to start a poor running or not running motor. When they drained the battery they then try pulling and it is a waste of time. A motor that is in tune with all systems go is pretty easy to fire up but one with issues that cause it to start hard, battery or not, is an effort in futility. Use jumper cables or get the motor tuned up.
