Yamaha 30hp Electric Start Problems

[Spectre 21]

Been having trouble starting my electric start yamaha. With the motor in the neutral i turn the key and nothing happens. What I have to do is put the motor in reverse and reach down and turn the prop a couple times. I then put the motor back in neutral and it will start. Once its running I put it in reverse (sounds like it slams into reverse) and i dont have the problem for a little while again... Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

[Some Old Guy 968]

I have never heard of that. What freaks me out is how the hell did you figure out you had to do that before getting it started?

Roger

[Some Old Guy 968]

Ok it got me thinking that your shifter is not working right. When nothing happens when it's in neutral first then you do the reverse thing and it starts. I think that your shifter lever is not letting it go back into neutral at some point.

Roger

[Spectre 21]

I have never heard of that. What freaks me out is how the hell did you figure out you had to do that before getting it started?

Roger

Uhhh good question. I think my original thought was it wasn't going into neutral and that maybe the shifter was caught up like you suggestedso i turned the prop to see if it was actually in neutral and it was. So then I tried to put it in reverse and it wouldn't shift to reverse, so i then turned the prop and push the lever into reverse and that seemed to make it able to go into reverse fine afterwords, but still wouldn't start when I went back into neutral. So i then put it in reverse and figure i would turn the prop to make sure it actually was going into reverse. So to make a long story short basically blind luck led me to it