1964 mercury 1000 100 hp 6cyl

I just got this 1984 boat that had a 1964 mercury on it. I started looking at the motor and it will turn over and the starter will spin. However the little gear or sprocket that hits the flywheel to spin. The sprocket looking thing on the starter is lower than the flywheel. It will spin up if I manually do it, but it wont stay. Any idea? Is it all electric fed?
Thanks for any help

Re: 1964 mercury 1000 100 hp 6cyl

This is a common issue on older mercs that have set up a while. A couple of things to look for.

1. Battery power is good--make sure it has good ground plus good battery charge. Too little power and it will not spin it up.

2. What I usually find is that the bendix (the screw gear under the starter pinion) has caked on grease or grime that prevents the gear from moving up. Take the nut off the top of the starter shaft and remove the pinion gear, and the bendix under that. Clean it with carb cleaner and reassemble.

Once you reassemble lubricate it with dry graphite powder, not grease. Most of my old mercs (Merc 700, 800 dockbuster, etc) had this problem and have been working great after this process.


Hope it helps,
AG

Re: 1964 mercury 1000 100 hp 6cyl

Thanks so much! I will try that. It seems the battery was the issue, because it kept loosing a charge. I will replace the battery and see if that works. Thanks again for your help