Howdy friends. I broke my boat and hoping everybody can help me out because I am not mechanically inclined at all. It's a mid-90's 30hp Johnson. Here's what happened:
I launched my boat, started it up with no issue, and let it idle to warm up while I scurried around the boat getting a few other things ready. In my movement, I buried the prop in the sand without realizing it. As I advanced the throttle forward, I heard a "thunk" and the motor died. Realizing what happened, I cleared the prop from the sand and turned the key... nothing happened. Didn't try to crank or anything, might as well have unhooked it from the battery. The ignition is the only thing I have connected to that battery, and everything else was still working fine.
Brought my boat home and looked it over. All fuses I could fine appear to be in good shape. All wiring as far as I can tell is still connected (there are a few wires that were obviously cut and I don't think they were in use since I've had the boat). The throttle still moves and the lever on the motor reacts accordingly. When the boat is in neutral, the propeller will still rotate. When it's in gear, the prop still catches when I try to rotate it.
I opened the casing on the throttle and as far as I can tell everything looks fine in there, too.
A buddy of mine thought maybe something bent in the lower from the jolt, and it won't get out of gear, resulting in it not cranking. I know these motors are relatively simple, but I'm not desperate enough yet to test my luck taking off the lower myself.
So with that, I'm out of ideas and looking for help. Really don't want to have to take it in to spend a lot of money, and I'm worried it will cost more than the boat is worth.
Thanks in advance. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants I need to get out on the kayak more.
