2005 Malibu VLX ignition problem

[casey_sdsu]

::SOLVED::

So I towed the boat 400 miles to the lake this weekend and out of the blue part way through day 2 I went to start the boat and it would not start.

The good,

-Battery levels are fine, stereo would continue to play throughout the entire tow back to the dock

-No low voltage warnings from the perfectpass/in dash display

-no circuit breakers by the drivers side tripped

-all the pumps, stereo, lights, etc. work, (not guages though)

-80 amp fuse by battery leading to dash not popped

-Perfect pass display still beeps at start up and displays info

The bad,

-Normally when you turn the ignition to the run position all the guages turn on and cycle their full positions then register their readings (i.e. gas level, voltage, etc.)

-Normally when you turn the key to the run position it also runs the fuel pump for a second or two.

-well, neither of the top two aformentioned happen, and when you turn the key to start, nothing, no clicks, no cranks, no dice.

Also Checked,

-disconected and re-connected the lanyard from the kill switch

-wiring all looked tight under the dash

-again, stereo and everything works including the horn which is shares a label with the ignition on the breaker under the drivers side by the thottle.

-turned the perko switch off for a few hours and then re-connected the power, still nothing.

Are there any other fuses, relays, breakers, etc. that I do not know about or has anyone had this problem before. Any help would be great, trying to head out of town again this weekend, and I dont think I could bring it in to service and get it back in time.

Thanks in advance,

-Casey

Edited May 27, 2009 by casey_sdsu

[99response]

The fact your gauges don't turn on makes me suggest that you bypass the kill switch.

-Chris

[SmoothWaterMan]

I agree, look at the kill switch more carefully. Dead dash is a good sign of that.

If you are sure it's not it, remove the circuit breaker panel and verify that all of the screws holding the bus bar onto the breakers are tight. For some odd reason the ignition breaker seems to be one that loosens up on special rare occasions, just to make you think it's a kill switch issue.

Peter

[casey_sdsu]

I'll give that kill switch a closer look at today, are there any fuses/relays in the engine compartment that I should look at also?

-Casey

[NMSetter]

Push up on the kill switch when you try to start it. Sometimes that plastic lanyard stretches.

[casey_sdsu]

Push up on the kill switch when you try to start it. Sometimes that plastic lanyard stretches.

Alright so I went out to the boat today and messed with the kill switch looked around with the engine wires and ignition wires, and wow the guages came on when I was holding in the kill switch button by hand, but it also worked with the lanyard. But now I am back to the same problems so I took a wire and jumpered the two wires that went to the kill switch to bypass it and that didnt work. I also put a meter across the kill switch and it seemed to function properlly.

Any thoughts? where do the purple wires go from the kill switch looks like it is 1 in 2 out on the two terminals.

[99response]

Check the ignition swtich, the purple wire is screwed into a termainal there, they can work themselves loose overtime.

Doesn't make sense that the swtich was "working" then jumping the switch didn't work, make sure you did a good job putting those wires together.

-Chris

[casey_sdsu]

Check the ignition swtich, the purple wire is screwed into a termainal there, they can work themselves loose overtime.

Doesn't make sense that the swtich was "working" then jumping the switch didn't work, make sure you did a good job putting those wires together.

-Chris

Thanks for the help but I feel stupid know because the problem was one of the first things I usally check with any electrical problems but for some reason i didnt.

I called malibu and they walked me through tracing the purple wires from the ignition to the engine and it has 12 volts the whole way, we checked it back to the dash and it still had 12 volts. The problem was a simple bad/loose ground on the battery going to the engine block.

everything on the dask and the pumps worked fine because they got grounded with their own wire coming from the battery but the ecm which controlls the stat and guages gets grounded to the engine block, which explains the symtoms like a bad kill switch.

Thanks again for the quick feed back, atleast I have a bit more information about the kill switch, etc. if a future problem arieses.

-Casey