1999 mercury force starting issue again. help!!

[cucinae5]

i have a 1999 mercury force 120hp. i had emailed before about how i had trouble starting and that my starter would lock against the flywheel as if it didn't have enough juice to turn the motor over. you of course told me to check my battery connections and the solenoid as well.

turned out i did burn up my starter. i bought a new one and put it on. first time i took it out it worked great. no issues.

the second time i took it out i went to start it and only got a buzzing noise coming from the starter. after about 5 minutes of waiting i tried it again and it started up. very odd, but figured it was nothing.

i then went out again the following weekend and it did it again.

now the third time when i took it out today went to start it, when i did the starter kicked into action and went to turn the motor. didn't do it on the first try which i know is not unusal when a motor is cold. so i went to try it again and this time got the same buzzing noise. so i waited like the last two times, only this time it never kicked back over. i keep getting the buzz noise as if it is trying to get the starter to work and it won't turn.

of course i had to pull out the boat and when i tried to put the motor up odd thing happened. i couldn't get the button to raise my motor. so i thought maybe i killed the battery or something. i drove home, and when i got him tried the motor again no response just buzzing. but for some odd reason at that point i was able to raise and lower the motor.

i put on a new starter solenoid and still nothing is working right. even the raising of the engine and lowering is taking some playing with the switch.

Any ideas what the heck is going on here? Please help

[scoyt]

Sounds like you have a bad connection at the battery.

[cucinae5]

Sounds like you have a bad connection at the battery.

so a bad connection at the battery would cause me to be able to start sometimes and not others and so the same with lowering and raising the engine? Why would it work sometimes and not others and why now would it not work at all even though i am getting juice out of the battery.

sorry for all the questions. just really confused. what can i do to fix it or how do i check what you are suggesting?

[scoyt]

A bad connection may not show up until alot of juice is needed, like starting the motor. The tilt motor doesn't pull as much current, that is probably why it only happens sometimes. Check the tightness of the big cable on the battery lugs, where the battery meets the cable. It should be tight. Check for white powdery stuff around that whole area, which indicates corrosion. Pull on the wires. They SHOULD stay in their respective connectors, but just in case, only pull one at a time. I may be wrong, but it sounds like a bad connection somewhere, that is why you have an intermittent problem. May be on the other end, where the cables connect to the motor itself........May be the battery itself, have you got another one you can swap with it?

[cucinae5]

A bad connection may not show up until alot of juice is needed, like starting the motor. The tilt motor doesn't pull as much current, that is probably why it only happens sometimes. Check the tightness of the big cable on the battery lugs, where the battery meets the cable. It should be tight. Check for white powdery stuff around that whole area, which indicates corrosion. Pull on the wires. They SHOULD stay in their respective connectors, but just in case, only pull one at a time. I may be wrong, but it sounds like a bad connection somewhere, that is why you have an intermittent problem. May be on the other end, where the cables connect to the motor itself........May be the battery itself, have you got another one you can swap with it?

i run two batteries all the time. I have a four switch selector. Off, 1, all, 2. i tried starting on all of them and the same issues occur on each setting. Wouldn't having two batteries be as testing another battery? or would one short out the other if there was a bad connection somewhere?

i appreciate all the feedback.

[cucinae5]

just so everyone knows i had to break down and have it looked at. turns out i had an electrical issue. lines were burned out so they had to be replace. go figure. probably did that when i burned the starter up.

and of course my water pump was bad too. they always find something else wrong. so i had that replaced as well.