Zombie kicker

sly_karma

Crew Member
My kicker will not die! It's a 1999 Merc 9.9 EL 4 stroke, newly mounted on this boat with Merc controls. Starts, runs and shifts great but won't shut off by either key or kill switch. Key-mounted choke works fine, makes it bog down and splutter but won't kill it; even removing a plug lead isn't enough, you have to yank them both. There is some kind of incompatibility with my controls, the male plug from the controls has 8 pins and physically fits the socket coming from the engine, but the latter has no conductor where pin 3 goes, just a bare hole in the plastic socket base. The controls are the older blue stripe style, no tilt/trim switch. Either the control unit or the harness that goes into the engine are incorrect for this engine - neither were supplied with the engine and were sourced by me online. Anyone care to take a stab at which one is the culprit?
 
Deceptively close to compatible when the plug and socket fit together, the starter works, the choke works, shift and throttle cables fit. Do I switch the controls or the engine's wiring harness?
 
I know when I bought my new Merc the older shift controls like you described were no good for it......
 
Funny thread really... Thanks for the laugh... Serial number must begin with a Z!!
 
The zombie is dead at last! I have been fishing with it and just unclipping the fuel line to eventually shut it off. I did consult with a Merc dealer who determined that I had the right wiring harness and that it all should work; they ran out of credible solutions ("just find the wire for the kill circuit and install a switch"). Anyway yesterday I finally had the time to get the meter out and do some detective work. After several hours I tracked it down to a bad ground inside the cowling. Connected onto a different engine bolt and hey presto, no more zombie.
 
I have the exact same issue with my 2000 4 stroke bigfoot. I was suspecting that the ground which the kill switch shorts to the power was bad, sounds like you solved my problem for me, hopefully
 
I had the wiring harness's ground terminal connected to a bolt below where the electrical enters the cowling, eventually found there was some continuity but too much resistance to ground out the ECM for a shutdown. It's now on a bolt that fastens the ECM and rectifier/regulator to the engine casting, no more problem.

Meter and a good set of test probes will sort it out for you. I have a set of probes with "bed of nails" alligator clips on them. They minutely penetrate insulation on low voltage wire so that you can get readings without having to strip wire or remove caps and heat shrink to get at connectors. Electronics suppliers like Interior Electronics have the clips, they will be about $6-8 each, another buck or two for insulating boot (or use shrink tubing). Make up a set of lamp cord test leads 3-4 ft long with banana plugs on one end and bed of nails clips on the other and you can test pretty much anything on your boat. If you get the cross-connectable style as shown, you can short the plugs together when needed.

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