Starting question from the new guy.

Hello all. Just bought my first boat, 1988 18' Sea Ray Seville with Mercury V-135 outboard. It was sitting for a while and I knew there were going to be problems. I just bought, charged, and installed brand new marine battery and I cleaned each terminal within the starting circuit (12v and ground) and I performed continuity checks on all of the starting circuit cables. The bendix gear engages the flywheel but it barely turns one revolution, also the bendix gear does not drop back down after releasing the key.

Since the terminals are clean and the cables have good continuity is it safe to say that the possibility exists that my my starter is weak and needs to be replaced? Thank you very much.

Re: Starting question from the new guy.

Before you go jumping on the starter motor try hooking a battery directly to the starter motor. You may have a bad solenoid.It is my experience that Mercury solenoids can be an issue.

Re: Starting question from the new guy.

two thoughts; how many amps is the starter pulling and if you don't have a guage to check....pull the spark plugs try the starter again. Just depending how long the boat was sitting up it wouldn't hurt to spray some light oil inside the cylinders to loosen the rings and give a litttle lube. Albiet all that it sounds like the starter is either tired or dead.

Re: Starting question from the new guy.

James, thank you. I should have thought of that. I did take the battery out and hooked up a set of jumper cables directly to the starter and it did the same, enganged and barely spun the motor. dturnersr, thank you to you too. It has been sitting since August of last year. It is dark out now but when I get off of work tomorrow I will spray the inside with light oil. I have a multimeter but I don't think it can measure that high of current. I just may head out and buy a clamp on ammeter.

Re: Starting question from the new guy.

I would remove the bolts mounting the starter, end every wire connection....... pull the spark plugs and try again. Sounds like corrosion and bad connections. Inspect the wires for corrosion since it hides under the insulation.

Since this is "new" to you I would also remove and bench check the starter. Odds are the brushes in the starter are circa 1988......

My primary bet is on connections.

Re: Starting question from the new guy.

You cannot do a useful continuity check on the starter high current circuit. It takes less than .050 Ohms to cause your symptoms. No meter commercially available can measure that.

As Bob suggests, clean the connectors for the big wires and reconnect. My guess is that your starter will spin her up.

Re: Starting question from the new guy.

Bob/JB. Thank you to the both of you! I did clean all connectors using wire brush, sand paper, and wiped clean with isopropl alcohol. All connectors from the + battery to solenoid / solenoid to starter and starter ground/return back to the - battery were all cleaned. Unfortunately I do not have a megger but I did ring out all of the starter high current cables so in my opinion the cables have minimal corrosion with minimal resistance. However, for my own piece of mind I may just replace the cables with brand new ones.

Thank you to all that replied and gave me advice. Any other advice or opinions is of course welcome.

Re: Starting question from the new guy.

Jumper cables may not be adequate. From experience clamping jumper cables onto the terminals may not provide sufficient current. Need to use battery cables bolted on. You can reroute your battery cables with a little effort or use a second set.

Re: Starting question from the new guy.

Update: The starter was the problem. I received a brand new one today, installed, and now the motor turns over like a champ. Thank you to all, I really appriciate your time.