Everything was hooked up: new gas line, battery, throttle and shifter clips, controls. It was time to turn the key and see what happened.

Before I turned it, I quipped that I was afraid to see what would happen. After all, so far it all had gone like a dream. The motor started with virtually no effort when we saw it in Port Carling. The lower unit was in utterly flawless condition. I had removed residual grease on the outside of the motor with a rag and some solvent so it was sparkling in the evening sun.

My heart was pounding, and I was nervous and apprehensive. I turned the key.

Nothing.

Not even a click. Just silence.

A car drove by. A breeze kissed the leaves of the trees on the front lawn. A cricket chirped in the neighbour’s back yard.

“Son of a bitch…”

After some sleuthing with a light tester and multimeter, we ruled out the controls, any cables intermediate to the controls and motor, and fuses. Jumping the boat battery to the one in my Trailblazer didn’t fix it either, so it wasn’t the battery. Eventually, with nothing else to test, we inconclusively ruled the solenoid or starter as the problem.

Then I remembered that in an emergency, one can bypass most of the motor’s wiring and jump the starter directly. With the battery hooked up to the motor as usual, we used the red jumper cable, one end connected to the positive terminal on the battery and the other end to the hot post on the starter, to try and see if the starter would kick. With no moment’s delay, upon touching the starter’s hot post, the starter jumped.

After turning on the hose to give the motor some water through a set of lower-end muffs and fixing an issue with leaky clamps on the gas hose, we soon had the motor roaring to life.

That was three days ago.

Tonight, with only the gas line hooked up to the motor and the key in the ignition, the motor started with six hearty pulls of the ripcord. As of right now the solenoid (motor relay) hasn’t arrived from Vancouver (according to the Suzuki dealer, it’s the only one in Canada, for a stiff price of $150), so if it doesn’t come by tomorrow night we’ll have to make do with the ripcord this weekend. Which won’t be much of a problem once the motor stretches its legs a little.

My fishing stuff is all ready to go. I just have to throw some clothes in a duffel bag and I’m ready to kick off another fishing season. Tomorrow night, in a surprise change of plans, I’m seeing Alice Cooper at the Molson Amphitheater, then Saturday morning I’m hittin’ the ol’ dusty.

Cheers until next week…