Bad Starter???

[dickey]

1983 Evinrude 60HP

Went to start it and it would hardly turn over. Tried again, and same thing. Thought battery was dead, so I connected wires to a different battery. When disconnecting I noticed the wires were REALLY hot. Same problem with back up battery. Went back to first battery, same problem, tried again and then it turned over fine. Another turn of the key and it would hardly turn over again. Pulled motor cover and noticed starter was really hot. Waited a few minutes while scratching my head. Tried it again and started up and ran fine all morning. A few friends are telling me if the wires and starter were REALLY hot, then the problem is the starter. Any suggestions???

Thanks,

Rick

[Don Supon]

Could be bad grounding on the starter. Check the mounting bolts and wire connections and clean them up with steel wool or sandpaper.

[dewey123]

Make sure all your connections are tight on your battery, starter and starter solenoid. Disconnect the battery before you check the connections.

[Don Supon]

How did you make out with the problem?

[LongLine]

It might not be the connection to the battery but rather the conection of the wire to the connector.

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[dickey]

Here is the update. I forgot to mention that the starter drive assembly was missing some teeth so I replaced it before I went out and ran into the problems. When I pulled the engine cover after being confused as to why it was having trouble turning over my dad noticed the new drive assembly was engaged with the flywheel. He thought this was not normal. I took the starter apart and everything looked good. After assembly I put some grease on the armature shaft where the drive assembly spins up and down. I checked all the electrical connections and everything looked good. Hooked the starter back up and it ran fine. Tried it about 6 times to make sure it was good. So I believe the problem was not greasing the shaft when I installed the new drive assembly. This caused the assembly to not spin down like it was supposed to. By having the assembly engaged with the flywheel before turning the key caused the starter to have such a hard time to turn over. This is just my guess. Works now and I hope it continues to work fine. Thanks to all that replied with suggestions.

Rick

[Don Supon]

Glad to hear of your success. Thought it would turn out to be some simple, basic condition because of the heating up. Luckily you didn't seem to burn out the starter, but you should watch it closely for a while.

[tangler]

Sometimes if you crank the motor and it doesnt start , that starter gear will stay engaged. Reason is the torque on the starter shaft vs the crank. When the motor starts, the flywheel spins faster than the starter and throws the starter gear back down the helix (the spiral thingy). Thats why the gear was still engaged. Glad u got her fixed.

[dickey]

Update. Went out waterskiing last week and boat had trouble turning over again at the dock. Finally got it started and it ran fine untill we shut it off after doing some skiing. Was having a hard time turning over again. Did some trouble shooting and after going directly from battery to starter and the starter barely turned over we figured starter was the problem. Decided since the water was warm to jump in a push it all the way back to the dock. After a long push we decided to try it again. It started up and we ran it to the dock and put it on the trailer. I took the starter to Golden on Elmgrove. They put a load on it and it ran fine. I asked him to take it apart and look at it. He said he cleaned up the connection on the inside since it was dirty and installed new brushes. They also load tested the battery (ok). I cleaned every connection on the motor. Cleaned the battery posts and cut the battery wires and went with new terminals. Boat ran fine in the driveway yesterday. Don't know if it was the starter, battery leads, or connections on motor. Hope this is it because it ran fine in the driveway days before it had problems at the dock. Thanks again for all your suggestions!

Rick