Before posting this - I took time to read all the fuel pump discussions of the past. Seems like the fuel pumps have been going out in a lot of epics in the past 5 years... Here's my scenario. I winterized the boat last fall per the procedure on the site (thanks for the guys who wrote it up.). Put the battery tender on and let her sit in dry storage for the past 6 months. Making a late start this year, go and try and start her yesterday and the engine tries its hardest to turnover but simply won't start. I try a couple times and even hook up the battery jumper pack I keep with me, thinking perhaps the battery had deteriorated over the winter. Sounds strong but won't turn over. Hook up the trailer, take it 10 mins to town to try and have the autozone check the battery and just by shear frustration, I turn the key. She starts right up. I let it run for 30-45 seconds, and its a smooth idle. The second I see the temp gauge move, turn it off and head to the lake. Back the boat in, turn over the engine, starts right up. Circle around to pick up my buddy at the dock, and seems like the engine completely shuts off, then immediately starts right back up (skips a beat), then 5 seconds later completely dies. Spend the next 1.5 hrs at the dock trying to start it, reading the forums on epicmarine.com, and just being generally anxious about having a broke boat at the dock. When I hit the fuel primer button - I get absolutely nothing. No noise at all. I read post about bypassing a relay with a wire, vice gripping the return line, etc. I'm not mechanic inclined but I can follow some directions well enough to be useful but I honestly struggled with some of the details in the post that gave advice for trouble shooting with a bypass wire.
I'm assuming I have a short in the pumps? Or does something else seem to be an issue?
The boat is 2 hrs away and the local shop seemed willing enough to look at it but they don't have me schedule until 2 weeks out. If they need to order parts at that point, I could be without a boat for a month. Any ideas or help would be most appreciated.
