Motor will not start (pics)

[bassarama]

Hey guys

Before I even started doing the decarburization with Seafom, I found another problem with the motor…I couldn’t start it. At first, the starter motor would not even turn so I thought the batteries were low on charge, I plugged the battery charger on 12 volts and after a few minutes I got to turn the starter motor, the problem is that the starter motor turns but its dog gear doesn’t engage on the fly wheel, I removed the fly wheel cover to look inside.




Here, I’m turning this gear by hand and it has resistance, should it turn freely?



The whole gear assemble appear to be in excellent shape, I sprayed it with Lithium gear and installed it. Again, the starter motor turns but it doesn’t engage. I think I have a bad starter motor…



Darn, now I believe these things go bad sitting around for long time, actually I’m glad I’m finding these problems right here at home.

Comments and suggestions are very much appreciated. Thanks

Joe