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?