Kill Cord / Switch

clare · 17 February 2005, 12:44

Do forum members, with diesel boats, disconnect their kill cords from the kill switch when they stop out at sea? I am thinking of when taking a lunch break, chilling out or the like.

MarkWildey · 17 February 2005, 12:50

Clare

Never done it yet, not even when I've been diving off the boat!!

Regards

Mark

Dave B · 17 February 2005, 13:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by clare

Do forum members, with diesel boats, disconnect their kill cords from the kill switch when they stop out at sea? I am thinking of when taking a lunch break, chilling out or the like.

If I am at sea with company then I do not use the kill cord, reason for this is simple, if you stop the engine after a long run without "running the engine down" that is allowing the oil to cool the turbo bearings by running the engine at idle for a short time, (I run down for arround 5-6 mins ) you run the risk of destroying the turbo bearings and that is a very expensive item to have to replace.

Swifty · 17 February 2005, 17:41

Irrespective of petrol or diesel engine, You should allways test your kill chord at the start of the day to make sure it is going to work. After that why else does the manufacturer put a stop position on the key?

Pulling the killchord every time you want to shut down seems unnecessary IMHO.

Tim.

Tony Barber · 17 February 2005, 19:42

On a slightly different note. Any ideas why my kill switch doesn't work? I have been using the kill cord and only thought to check the other day, and the engine continues running no matter what position the switch is in? It is a quicksilver remote unit with the type of kill switch that you slip a loop from the kill cord over and then flick the switch to hold it in place.

Thanks.

Swifty · 17 February 2005, 20:39

Take a peek in the control unit. The switch has two wires on it. One wire goes to negative ground, the other is connected to the CDI pack. When the switch is on (chord out) it shorts the CDI output to ground.
Beware, you can get a nasty jolt from the ignition terminal, it bloody hurts.

Failing that check the engine end.

Rogue Wave · 17 February 2005, 20:58

I was driving a charter boat in Cowes last year it had an Opti 225 and the kill switch disintegrated . The engine duly stopped I pulled the cable off the kill switch and it duly started. I suspect that you have a cable fault or the relay in the engine has gone.

Either way don't drive that boat without an operationg kill switch cos those opti's have a kick in the tail and could have you out of the boat and at this time of the year you may well be in trouble!

Paul F · 17 February 2005, 21:40

The kill switch on the opti is part of the normal stop circiut(im sure) therefore its most likely a connection in the box.Is the kill switch part of the box or is it remotely mounted away from control box?
Paul

Gentiana · 18 February 2005, 10:29

Clare,

If you remove your killcord, without taking out your isolator switch, you will drain your battery.

Tony Barber · 28 February 2005, 19:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul F

The kill switch on the opti is part of the normal stop circiut(im sure) therefore its most likely a connection in the box.Is the kill switch part of the box or is it remotely mounted away from control box?
Paul

Hi, sorry for the delay in replying to this. It is part of the control box, although it does look like it would clip off?

Tony.

Powerboat · 28 February 2005, 20:34

Hi folks,

Hope the following Kill Cord training tips are useful.

Regularly test your Kill CordCheck for knick and cuts

Dont use spurious solid plastic cords.They break and crack !

Wear the cord around your leg or on a secure (metal) buckle on your lifejacket..not on the wrist where it can slip off.

When leaving the boat to go for lunch, remove the kilcord so that you cannot restart the boat without having to conciously re-connect the cord. We always leave it on our leg and shove the loose (engine) end into a trousers pocket.

If stopped at sea with the engine running (in Neutral!!!) and you need to remove the cord to move down the boat, first wrap the cord around the steering wheel or throttle so that you cannot inadvertantly move off with no cord attached to a Coxswain.

Kind regards,

Stuart
Parker Ally Cat RIBs

Cookee · 01 March 2005, 11:50

Opti and all mercury engines that I know of use the same ignition loom - the kill cord works by making an earth when pulled - either the Opti has a bad earth or the wire to the kill switch is damaged or disconnected.

clare · 05 March 2005, 13:27

I think Gentiana has answered my query because my battery goes down when I take my kill cord off from the console.
To develop the instructor's points, it seems sense for me to remove the cord from the 'person' and attach it to the wheel when stopping for any period of time.

Clare