Motor will not start (pics)

[THEFERMANATOR]

The starter should have some resistance when turning by hand from the armeture passing by the magnets. How fast does it spin up when you try to start it? And grease on the bendix like that can cause starter problems. It may not look like it, but there is a rubber clutch disc inside of that gold part with the teeth that contact the flywheel. If grease gets in there it won't turn the engine over because there won't be enough friction to engage it.

[spareparts]

use that load tester to check the battery cables, Hook it up at the starter solenoid and the block, when you load it, it will tell you how much you are loosing compared to straight at the batteries. I've found bad acbles, bad connections, and bad battery switches using a load tester. Yamaha's are particualry prone to having battery cables problems if they have the factory cables

[bassarama]

The starter gear turns pretty fast, the problem is that the engaging gear does not move up to the fly wheel. This has me puzzled, this motor went from starting from a single ignition key to this

[Stillrunning]

I'd take it to a place that rebuilds starters and have them bench test it. I have the same motor and mine sank about 7 years ago. I knew I should replace the starter but it kept on working so I jut put it off. After about 4 years it started sound weak so I took it in to have it looked at. The owner of the shop said it was the worse looking starter he has ever seen still working in his 30 years of business. He even took pics to show customers before and after.

[Mulv80]

I had a 1984 Evinrude 115 where the starter would spin but wouldnt pop up to engage the flywheel. I had initially thought it was the starter motor. The culprit was actually corroded battery cables. Feel the battery cables while someone else turns the ignition, if they are getting hot, chances are the starters not getting enough juice.

[whale]

Just one other thing.....make sure you don't have a bad ground somewhere. My motor did the same thing and it turned out to be a bad connection at the negative post. I had done some rewiring and so I disconnected all accessories etc at the battery and made sure there were good connections at the battery. Started up just fine. It happened again at the ramp when I tried to launch as the negative post had come loose on the drive. Tightened it down and started fine.

[bassarama]

Put in a few hours on the motor this afternoon and started chasing the cables as you guys suggested, everything I could lay my eyes on looked very solid…I had one more area to check and that was inside the rubber boot where the cables, gas hose, etc etc, come in the motor, I spotted an area wrapped with electrical tape and even before I uncovered it, I had that gut feeling I had found the problematic area, this was what I found upon removing the elect. tape:




Apparently the ground cable had been taped well before I bought the boat, I fail to understand how some boater or even a pro, could come up with a repair like that, again I’m glad it happened here at home and not battling the Race rips.

Guys, you’re the best, thanks for your help.

Joe