Greetings,
This is my first post on the forum, after my first boat purchase; 1995 Chaparral 180 SLC, Mercruiser 3.0L Alpha One, Gen II. I purchased the boat a few months ago, and when I first tried to start it, the longer of the two starter boats broke off in the block. This caused the starter motor to shift, and not catch the fly wheel. I purchased a replacement starter bolt from my local Mercruiser dealer, removed the starter and went after the broken bolt. I was using a metal drill bit and bolt remover, and in this process, the bolt did not back out successfully, rather ran up into the block. It didn't fall out, or spin out, it went north and disappeared. Where is it? If loose in the block, could it cause damage to the flywheel or other moving parts near by? If I need to get it out, how do I go about doing that?
Also, I have read that this is a common problem for the 3.0L mercruisers. If I wanted to get a bracket to prevent this from happening, where would I go to find one? I can't seem to find one online anywhere.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
This is my first post on the forum, after my first boat purchase; 1995 Chaparral 180 SLC, Mercruiser 3.0L Alpha One, Gen II. I purchased the boat a few months ago, and when I first tried to start it, the longer of the two starter boats broke off in the block. This caused the starter motor to shift, and not catch the fly wheel. I purchased a replacement starter bolt from my local Mercruiser dealer, removed the starter and went after the broken bolt. I was using a metal drill bit and bolt remover, and in this process, the bolt did not back out successfully, rather ran up into the block. It didn't fall out, or spin out, it went north and disappeared. Where is it? If loose in the block, could it cause damage to the flywheel or other moving parts near by? If I need to get it out, how do I go about doing that?
Also, I have read that this is a common problem for the 3.0L mercruisers. If I wanted to get a bracket to prevent this from happening, where would I go to find one? I can't seem to find one online anywhere.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.