I have a 89 Evinrude 100, I thought my cranking battery was getting weak, the starter spins but it does not kick it up to engage. When I thought it was the battery, i hooked up the jumper box to it and this worked. But Sunday must have been the last straw. The starter would just spin and not "kick up". What is the problem here? The spring? Bushings? Not sure of the terminolgy of these parts so feel free to enlighten me!

I have a Merc. same problem. What I did was take the starter out and pull the top off . I checked the bushings and they were wore so I turned them end for end. I also had rust around the windings so I took some emery cloth and polished them back up. put it together and it has been running great for 3 years. this is a very simple project.

forgot to mention you need to pull the rotor out

I will have to try that...what is the best way to clean them and with what? Soft Brush, wire brush prolly not? Pull the rotor out? what do you mean, clean that also? Thanks machohorn

Okay Just talked to my mechanic (DAD), did you mean brushes? Instead of bushings? From what I recall, the brushes I don't think were flippable.

how clean / dirty is the path in the top end of the starter? sometimes that will get dirty and prevent the gear from spinning up the rest of the way and engaging. You could try wd-40 to clean it.

marine_man

Marine man, it looked pretty clean, there wasn't anything ubstructing it either. Is this a common problem to just be dirty?

I have had problems with the magnets in some of my starters for my lawn mowers so that could be a possibility.

I just talked to another mechanic, he said like marine man the abendix is dirty. I guess it used to be a pretty common problem for the Rudes. Hopefully that is it!

It's not a uncommon problem, and an easy fix to boot - so it's what I'd try first...

marine_man

Had the same problem with mine on OPENING MORNING OF WALLEYE FISHING!!!! Ended up getting a tow back to shore. The first thing a did was look at the shaft the gear rides on up to the flyweel. Looked PERFECTLY clean. Blasted it with WD-40 and compressed air just for kicks and giggles. It's been working fine since. Even though you might not be able to see that its dirty, it can just be fine dirt fragments that build up. I would reccomend cleaning this every spring when you get your boat ready for the water.

Is there any way to test this, my Dad is pretty old school and we had hooked jumper cables to it, it would just spin. (This was before the cleaning) and we havent tried it since. Is this a good way to test, i.e will it spin up like its supposed to?

That won't overide the dirt / gunk built up in the spiral cut groove... it's one way to test everything else.. but still won't take care of the junk built up.

marine_man

That won't clean it out, but it is a good method to see if the starter works. When hooked up the the bat. charger (after being removed from the engine), it should still kick the gear up. If it doesn't, try spraying with brake cleaner, and then WD-40. If you do it the other way areound, the brake cleaner will just remove the WD-40 (which will help lubricate the gear shaft). Then throw it back on the bat. charger. If it kicks up, then you obviously fixed the problem, if it doesn't, you are probably looking at something internal.

I just got back from the cabin and I'm having the same problem with my motor (merc). I tried spraying some WD-40 below the gears, but this didn't help. I can get it to go by kind of prying up with a screw driver and turning it by hand. It will pop up the next time I turn the engine over, but then it slams back down and won't pop up until I pry it up again. I seems like it is coming down to far. Is there supposed to be some kind of clip or ring below those gears to keep it from sliding down too far? Or do you think I just need to clean it a little better? Thanks for any help.

I had a simlar issue with my '94 Mercury OB. Hit the key and nothing. Pulled the starter out and used a screwdriver to pry up the gear. I had my cousin put in a new brush kit while it was out, cleaned everything, put it back together and never had another issue.

I don't believe there is. But if you can provide more information (Model number and year at a minimum, or a s/n) I can take a look.

It sounds like it may be time for a rebuild.

marine_man

I don't have the model number handy (I can find it tonight), but it is a '03 Merc 125hp 2 stroke if that helps.

Nope.. there's no washer on that one.

Here's the parts breakdown:



marine_man

Thanks marine man.

Do you know if there is supposed to be much vertical play in the shaft? I can move it up and down a little bit (maybe 1/8"). Maybe it just needs to be rebuilt.

Well I am still boat less or shall I say motorless, we took my starter to a dealer and he tested it and it worked beuatifully. Upon further review, we pulled the plugs and it turned over nicely...plugs back in chug, chug, chug. Then all of a sudden it sped up and fired. This was rather odd, then it went back to a slow chug. We also tried boosting the battery to no avail.

I talked to a different dealer and he said it could have been air locked. Am I losing the juice somewhere, short in the wiring, lower unit bearing?

There usually is a little bit of play in the assmebly. I'd say it's time for a rebuild.

You can try hitting the side of the starter and see if that takes care of your problem. If it does it definitely is time for a rebuild.

marine_man

Have you checked all your connections? Are they tight, free of corrosion - both to the battery and to the starter?

marine_man

I have checked everything as far as exterior wires....I am now proficient at taking apart all the electronics around and wires around the starter. If it is turning over but doin the chug, all the wires have to be connected...right?

Sure, they're connected, but if you don't have good connections it's not getting all the amperage it needs to spin the motor over.

I'm not saying that's the smoking gun... but it's where I'd start.

marine_man

SOunds like a plan, any inline fuses I would need to be looking at here? Thanks

Follow the battery cable from the battery to the starter. I'm pretty sure there's no inline fuse, and even if there were I don't think that's the issue as it works fine sometimes.

marine_man

Try hooking up the battery cables directly to a known good battery. No jumper cables, booster packs etc. I had one once where the starter cranked slowly like you described. I tried hooking the booster pack to the battery, solenoid, and directly to the starter and nothing worked. Pulled the battery out of a different boat, hooked it up (directly, without jumper cables) and the starter spun the motor over great.

You're absolutely right MM, no fuse.

fishin58.
Have you load tested the battery yet?
When the dealer tested it, he just layed it down on the bench, hooked up cables, it spun, kicked up and he said "yup, she's good", right? Thats a no-load test. You've said before that it spins good without the plugs in it, right? Either you have a bad connection as MM suggests or the starter is bad. To eliminate the connection issue, have you tried connecting directly to the starter,( I have a heavy duty remote switch for this) both pos and ground. If you try this, make sure the key is off.
Do you have a volt meter? Or an amp meter?

He had a deal hooked up to a booster pack, with a remote that you could control the juice going to the starter. He tried it a few times and like he described it alomst jumped off the floor. So it must have had some torque behind it.Load testing has been done and the battery is still listed as okay. But I am going to try a new one this weekend. boatfixer we had hooked jumped thru the solenoid and it still chugged if that is what you meant?

If I understand your post correctly, you connected a battery through some method directly to the solenoid, right?

If you still got the chug chug then it sounds like it's time for a starter rebuild.

I understand it spun fine with no load, but if it won't with a load and you've already bypassed all the cables and connections then you're done with troubleshooting, it's the starter.

marine_man

Well, the boat's back in commision. I just had to replace the bendex (the part that pops up to engage the flywheel). The bottom of the gear had worn out in that part. Thanks for everyones help.

UPDATE, thank you MM and boatfixer, I took it to another boat shop and they load tested the starter, = burnt armiture!! They also found a leaky seal with my carbs, so she is back to purring like a kitten or as close as an ol 2 stroke can do!. Thank you guys for your imput and you were spot on! Nice work, also I cannot remember the last time my motor cranked so fast, I guess I had gotten used to the way it sounded.

Thatnks for the followup! Glad to hear you're back out on the water.

marine_man

Great, glad to hear it's workin' for ya!