Rats love the challenger 1800

[fastE]

97 challenger Boat has been in the barn over a winter, and rat desires my pretty key, so it chews the lanyard off and steels my key.
Being I hate spending money I tear apart barn looking through dozens of rat nest including one in the boat. No luck all summer.
So I finally decide to send off my mpem to get new keys made. I believe I should of took pictures first, got the mpem and keys back. Find that wasps love seadoo as well, Installed to best of my recollection, I'm thinking I got it pretty close but not positive. Put the key on no beep. Fuel warning light comes on, no beep or crank.
Long story short I need help trying to trbl shoot wiring. Rats could have chewed other wires but with out wire diagram or schematic hard to trbl shoot. Any help would help

 

[fastE]

After further investigation and pulling the throttle/shifter assembly out I found neutral safety wire broke. I still not getting a beep but it will at least turn over the engine now so headed in the right direction

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Is that a Mercury Sportjet or Rotax? Buzzers are famous for going belly-up for no good reason.

Mice/rats seem to dislike fabric softener dryer sheets, they happily gobble down ivory soap bars.

 

[fastE]

Rotax, I'll try the soap and fabric sheets next time I put it up.
It was turning over now but had no spark, so I swapped the coils and got spark too. Getting closer, all it needs now I think is to get gas too. I'm thinking of getting the remote mounted pulse pumps, the stock ones seem to have given me trouble from day one

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

What I meant is soap for rats/mice is a welcome snack, not a deterrent. But dryer sheets seem to be a good deterrent.

Anyway, any small air leaks in the fuel lines will be enough to cause the fuel pump to suck air and that doesn't work well. If you're having difficulty with fuel delivery, a low-pressure check of the fuel lines and confirmation of integrity is the ticket.

Two typical trouble spots are the water/fuel separator cup gasket and the fuel selector valve. Any inward air leaks in these will result in fuel starvation.

The carb-mounted fuel pumps have always worked well for me, it's usually some other issue and 9/10 times it's an air leak in fuel lines or carbs are corroded internally.

As for starting fluid, I use a squirt bottle of pre-mix fuel in a windex-style bottle, as opposed to ether-type starting fluid. Ether is very harsh and I've seen it lift heads and damage head gaskets. Gasoline must always be handled with care, it's easy to have an accident and acquire a dumpster-explosion hair-do or worse, by accident so be careful!

 

[fastE]

I thought maybe the soap killed em when they ate it lol.
Fuel lines have been a sore spot, with air leaks that is. Fix one and another pops up. I had it working good last time it was out. I'm sure there is more to find now, just have to wait for time to stand on my head in the engine bay again. If only there was a way to rotate the boat upside down so I could stand under it and work on it lol

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Yep, hanging upside down with mirror, wrench and flashlight in hand gets old quickly. I just climb in there, take a couch pillow in case you want/need to take a nap and hope nobody starts taking blackmail photos or closes the lid :O.

The other one that gets you over time is jumping out of the boat onto a hard surface, this messes up your feet pretty good so a ladder along side is the solution that works for me.

It's not fun but worth the trouble.