Emergency cutoff switch

I have a 1998 Nautique 351 engine. I always make sure the engine starts before I go to the lake, and sure enough it did. I got to the lake and started the boat. Started ran for 1 second and shut down. I repeated this several times. Start, 1 second run , shut down. Then it wouldn't start. I don't recall if this happened before or after it dawned on me that I had not put the lanyard in the cutoff switch. I put the lanyard in, but I could not get the engine to fire. Waited 30 minutes and still would not fire. Fuel pump was engaging at key turn but no ignition. Pulled it out and went home. The next morning it started fine. Is there some kind of circuit breaker that might have kick in when I repeatedly tried to run it without the lanyard in place? Any other ideas?

Ken,
Welcome to the site. I know we can help you out here. It does sound like a lanyard safety switch problem.

Do you have a volt/ohm meter and how are you with basic electricity? You need to check the lanyard safety switch on the backside to see if the switch is closing. This is done with the ohm meter. Disconnect one of the wires on the switch, touch both terminals with the test leads and you should get a near zero reading if good with the lanyard plugged in.

If you don't have the meter, I highly recommend getting one. A basic cheap meter is about $25. Testing before just changing out a bunch of parts will pay for it in short time. Besides, the meter is handy around the car and house too. They do come with basic instructions.

Behindpropeller
I thought about flooding, but didn't know how to give it full throttle. I have fuel injection and the engine won't turn over unless the throttle is in the neutral position. What do you mean by pulling out the knob. I think there is something here that I am not aware of. I used to have an outdrive where I could disengage the transmittion and give it carburator throttle by pulling the whole shift level outward but my tique doesn't seem to operate the same way. Is there something you can do with the knob?

Ken

They do have that control knob but it's color and location varies by year. My '04 has a black plastic knob within the base of the throttle lever. If you didn't know it's there, you wouldn't see it! It also pulls out to allow throttle (rearward) in neutral.

My bet is the throttle position was not completely in neutral when trying to restart. I've have situations with the old Morse and new throttles that the throttle is not at dead center and there is no start. Center the throttle and it goes without a skipped beat ....... it is esp. likely to happen when foolin' around with the cut-off lanyard. Hope it is that straight-forward for ya'

I want to thank you all for your help. I'll have some things to look at when I get home. This is a great community and I appreciate everyone's insight.

Ken