Outboard Starter Issue

[Geekie1]

Hi Mulv,

I had a similar problem the boat before the V20. I had a 18' Hydrasport with a Merc (Mariner) 90. The problem looked like yours. The starter cranked the engine slower and slower and got fairly hot without too much cranking. I took the starter to an electric motor shop for a checkout. They replaced the brushes and could not find anything else wrong. I put the starter back on the engine and had the same degraded result. I then got out my DVM to check resistances to the starter. Resistance to ground looked good. I then checked the hot side of the starter and discovered that someone spliced the hot side cable that went to the starter. The splice had a high resistance which was the culprit. The splice was located in the cable from the hot side of the battery to the engine and was obscured under the engine box. Fortunately I had the Mariner shop manual which led me to the problem quickly. Ever since then when I buy a new boat or new engine I routinely put out the $50 or so bucks for a shop manual. I know that I can't do the major repairs that are in the manual, however, I am sure that I have always saved the price by referring to it and doing repairs that were within my limited scope.

Ed G.