Starter Grinding 3.7 liter Merc

marzejka

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Oct 6, 2012
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I have a 87 Sea Ray Seville with 3.7 Mercruiser 4cyl 224 cid. I bought it a few years ago and it ran great. Last year the starter died and it needed a new starter. I installed a new one and had it running in driveway on muffs. I ended up not taking it out last year so it sat. This year I went out to open her up for this year and I went to start it and it is grinding bad on the starter. I tried many times to start it, I managed to start it a few times. After shutting it down and trying again, it would do the grinding again and wouldn't start, eventually it was just spinning and making no contact, so I pulled the starter out and looked at the bendix gear and it was broken, freely sliding up and down the shaft with ease. It was under warranty at West marine so I went that route, I received my new starter and installed it, my battery was older so I decided to get a new marine battery from Autozone. While I was waiting on the starter to arrive, I decided to take carb apart and clean it out, did that and reassembled it, I also changed the slave solenoid and upgraded to pertronix ignition. Upon installing the new battery and starter, I turned the key and bam! it fired up and ran great for 5 minutes while i tuned the carb. So i thought i fixed it. Shut it down and upon restart it was grinding again! So this is where it gets weird. I decided to pull the spark plugs and inspect for moisture and do a compression test, When I hooked up the compression tester to piston 1, turned the engine over, it was grinding. So i pulled it out. Turned the engine over with starter and no plugs in, spun great over and over and over, no grinding of starter. As soon as i just barely seat the compression tester on any cylinder, it grinds. Please help, I love this old boat but i'm starting to think I might need to part with her. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
 
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Bondo

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Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,... Sounds like ya either got a bendix gear problem, or a ring gear problem,...

Pull the starter, 'n inspect both,....
 

marzejka

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Oct 6, 2012
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If the ring gear is bad or bendix, then why does the starter engage great with no problems when I pull all plugs and turn it over with key?
 

Bondo

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Ayuh,... I'm guessin' there's enough tooth to turn it without a load, 'n to much damage with a load,...
 

stonyloam

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Last edited:

marzejka

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Oct 6, 2012
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Thanks for the info, I will pull starter and inspect all the teeth. If it's bad, I will pull engine forward and change it out. Thanks.
 
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