[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by cfelton

I took the V out yesterday (second time this year, been really busy) and it ran flawlessly. I ran it about 2-3 hours with no problems. I came back to the boat landing and cut it off to wait to load it back up and when I went to start it up it wouldnt hardly crank, never got it started back up. I thought the battery was dead but after charging it up at home it barely started. The starter came from Advance Auto. Its only about 3 years old with very little hours on it! I learned my lesson about them. Does anybody know if theres an upgrade starter other than the Delco model? Maybe a new style geardrive or other. It goes on a Mercruiser 170 4 cylinder sterndrive.

Sorry to hear of your problem... Some thngs to remember about boat parts in general and electrical parts specifically....
3 years is 3 years of corrosion.. it matters not if you used an item or not. Once you expose it to the marine environment (especially the salt water kind) things start to degrade... So don't be so quick to blame Advance (or any other store for that matter). Ocean air has a higher salt content in it than non-ocean area air... So even if somethngs been sitting for a while you still have salt doing it's thing...corroding anything metal.
That being said I'd look at all the contacts and the connections to that starter.....including inside the starter solonoid if it has one. If it's the starter chances are that's where your trouble lies. It's possible that your windings are fried, but since it had worked less than 3 hours earlier that would not be my first guess.