So I finally got my boat in the water. The thing fires right up. We cruise out to the middle of the lake, eat lunch, go to fire it up to get in a few sets. And it won't start. After frustration and inexperienced tinkering, it finally starts after about 25 minutes of trying to crank over. The baby on board is cranky by this time so we decide to take her and Mom in while the rest of us try to get a set in. Get to the dock, unload baby, engine dies and won't restart. Batteries are fine, they are cranking the engine fine. It just won't start. So we trailer it up and head home. Any symptoms sounding familiar, any solutions to offer?

Yeah ours did that the other day... took it to the dealer and turned out it wasn't the lanyard(sp) but the actual kill switch it's connected to so it wouldn't start unless it wanted to. Now it works fine

Fried impeller causing it to overheat?

Bad gas? Fouled plugs? <BR> <BR>Did it die at the dock in idle? <BR>What kind of motor? Carbed or EFI?

My buddy just bought an '01 Malibu EFI that had sat up for 3 years and had very similar problems. We ended up changing out the impeller, all the spark plugs, most of the sensors, the fuel filter, and running a few tanks of treated gas through it. She's running like a top now!

Neutral saftey switch? Try giggiling the throttle.

The boat was tuned up at the end of last year (spark plugs, impeller, everything)So that kinda rules out any of the standards that why it is so mind boggling... <BR> <BR>The boat didn't die in idle at the dock. I had to do a quick shift from forward to reverse and that killed it at the dock. But again, it would crank over fine but just would not start. <BR> <BR>Its got a 4 barrel holley carb in it. The carb needs to be rebuilt, but would that cause it not to start properly?

Yea I think that could cause it to not start for sure.

try to pop it in neutral and open your throttle wide open and try to start it then...just be ready when it starts to back off the wide open quickly...maybe you are "loading up" my boat does this if i run it hard then come up and shut off quickly...its hard to start then unless i open it up

If it's not starting because of the carb it's not loading It up its flooding it. Holding the throttle wide open will let freash air in the intake so the the mixture (fuel to Air) gets back to where the engine likes it. Andy had the right Idea but wrong reason. If your carb needs to be rebuilt I would say that it might be flooding your engine. Instead of rebuilding it though I would get a marine Edelbrock fro summit racing their like 300 bucks and they are way easier to keep in tune then a Holly. <BR> <BR>try the wide open throtle thing it might be your problem, and if you do have a lanyard I would check the switch too. Oh and make sure you are gettoing fuel to the engine. Like my dad always taught me start with the easy stuff first. <BR>al

I second the neutral safety switch. I had a boat that would do that all the time. If you jiggle the throttle it would then start. I also had a boat that somehow sucked the ball part of the check valve in the fuel tank through the spring. When the fuel pump was not being turned by the engine it would allow enough fuel to flow to the engine to start initially. Once the engine was running it the fuel pump would pull the ball in. It would then die and would not start again until you walked away from it for awhile. That one was a real pain to figure out.

I had a similar problem a couple years on my old 99 Pro Air, it had sat all winter for about 4 months and the first time it was out it started up and died and wouldnt start back up. Next time out it sputtered but we just kept giving it gas. My guess would be to try to cycle out the old gas if you had any left over from last season.

I would check the fuel filter and fuel pump. <BR> <BR>Is your fuel pump manual or electric? And what make is your engine? And do you have electronic ignition or old style points? <BR> <BR>When your engine dies, try to look down into the top of the carb and when operating the throttle, can you see fuel being shot into the venturis? <BR> <BR>Also, have you checked to make sure that you still have spark when you try to restart?

Probably the lanyard switch. Had to replace mine too, Malibu had a defective batch. Replace or bypass it, see if that solves the problem.

looked at it again today...found out the altenator isn't charging. Doesn't seem to be the main issue because the batteries were still charged fine. Got a set in today though so that was good. Hope to have this figured out soon.