Z302 silent choice stopped working
 

My silent choice stopped working so I went through the basic troubleshooting within my capabilities. I have power at the dash switch as indicated by the red light. Back at the engine I tested the wires on both sides of the exhaust at the harness connection (prior to the SC mechanism on top of the riser). With the switch off I have no power to all 4 wires (red, white, black, green). With the switch on I have power to the red wire only. I also see power going to the mechanism is independent, if I unplug one wiring harness with the switch on, I still have power to the other (and vice versa). So clearly the problem is related since both are not working. The only other thing I notice is the starboard side SC mechanism cannot be moved manually (either with switch on or off) but the port side I can move it back and forth manually with switch off, when turning switch on it will lock in place when moved forward and spring back toward the stern by switching exhaust switch off. Any ideas what this means, could I be missing continuous power to one of the wires ? Any help or ideas would be appreciated. Thanks, Jamie

Re: Z302 silent choice stopped working
 

Hi Jamie, I had a slightly different problem with mine where the starboard side mechanism broke inside the exhaust. I've just finished fixing but can tell you from that that you should definitely be able to move both manually.

There are a couple of small circlips on the linkages which you could remove very carefully and see if you can free it. My advice would be to not remove the solenoid from the exhaust housing unless you really have to as the backing nuts are pretty fiddly.

It's just a rod and spring in the solenoid so you might find that it's the spindle that goes through the exhaust that has jammed. Mine had corroded and the flap had fallen back into the baffles toward the transom.

Good luck, drop me a reply if you need any help on the mechanical bit, maybe if it got jammed it fried the power feed on that side?

Steve