I have an old 4 cylinder I/O mercruiser engine and Im not getting it to fire up at all. When I turn the ignition key the whole engine will kind of jolt, the steering would pull really hard to the right,and then I get nothing. Any ideas? It was running great before I decided to do some cosmetic updating on the boat....I also recently repaired a hydraulic leak in my trim motor and replaced the batteries but the engine was working great after that. Im wondering if by tying up some of the loose wiring while I was painting, I might have pulled something loose? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I would start with some electrical checks. Look for 12V on the coil. See if
you get spark when you turn the engine over, etc. Do a good visual
inspection and notice if anything looks out of place. Tighten any loose
connections you find. Clean up any corroded connections. Concentrate these
efforts wherever you were messing around with stuff.
JIMinFL
"meldeming" wrote in message
...

I have an old 4 cylinder I/O mercruiser engine and Im not getting it to
fire up at all. When I turn the ignition key the whole engine will kind
of jolt, the steering would pull really hard to the right,and then I get
nothing. Any ideas? It was running great before I decided to do some
cosmetic updating on the boat....I also recently repaired a hydraulic
leak in my trim motor and replaced the batteries but the engine was
working great after that. Im wondering if by tying up some of the loose
wiring while I was painting, I might have pulled something loose? Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


--
meldeming

I would consider removing the sparkplugs and trying to crank the engine
by hand, using a socket wrench.

Also, one of the first rules of troubleshooting is to ask: what=B4s the
last thing that was done to the engine. In this instance, you replaced
the batteries. Perhaps the terminals are loose or corroded...

good luck. let us know what you find.