CHB 1981 2 - Ford Lehman 120

[Mithril Bham]

You are heading out into what can be some of the worse weather and seas in the world and can turn on a dime. Don't even think about it unless you are ship shape. Not a bad idea to wait a while anyway.
Good luck

[topmast]

Fords have a separate from starter solenoid. If you can locate it by following big wire back from starter. Check if got 12 on one side of solinoid Hit the little terminal with a hot wire. Nothing ?? It's toast and you can engage starter with big jumper cable across the solinoid big terminals

[etterridge]

With your focus on a transmission interlock, have you overlooked something else. My neighbor here in Nassau could not get one of his big Cummins to start a while back. The mechanic came and showed him the circuit breaker reset button.
A quick solve for him.
My own breaker popped once (westerbeke) at a very inconvenient and pote.tially dangerous moment. It took me a while before I found it in a wiring diagram (unlabeled). The manual for my engine does not even document that I have one. And the button is invisible behind a bracket.

Could your problem be a circuit breaker?

[Trwl36]

I have a FL SP135 and had a similar problem twice - engine would not start, not a sound from the solenoid, just pushed the start button and nothing. I thought it was the neutral switch as well, and tried what you did, but it did nothing.

I kind of eliminated the solenoid because is started fine the previous day. I then started to check the wiring. The first time, I found a fuse in the wiring bundle by the starter. It was blown. On my engine it's a ceramic fuse not a normal glass one. Anyway that was the problem. I also unbundled the wires and found two wires shorted - so if you have this problem I highly recommend you search for the cause of the blown fuse.

The second time this happened, I started to trace the wiring again, this time the fuse was fine. I got to the start battery opened the top of the battery box and saw that the negative terminal screw had completely broken away. From the outside the negative wire looked fine, but inside the battery box there was no connection.

Hope this helps.