Electric short between starter gear and flywheel!?!

[thephridge]

Howdy. I have an 18 horse Mercury twin cylinder. It has a new starter and solenoid. And we replaced one of the coils. Now when we hit the key, the starter gear pops up and an electrical arc occurs between the gear and the flywheel. We made certain that the starter was well grounded to the block and even ran an extra ground back to the battery but it still happens. I think we have some wires crossed somewhere but we can't find anything wrong. Has anyone seen this before? What was the issue?
Thanks!

 

[Texasmark]

I would guess you have the power to the starter on the wrong terminals. Get out your digital multimeter...if you don't have one Harbor Freight sells them for sure for less than 10 bucks and surely numerous other places. Put it on the Ohms measurement type and lowest scale...like 200 Ohms. Touch the leads together and get a reading....you are measuring the resistance of the test leads which needs to be subtracted from the following measurements:

With the starter installed in it's mount and the 12v and ground lead disconnected, touch the Bendix/shaft and individually connect the other lead to each of the two terminals. One will show a lower Ohm reading than the other. The lowest Ohm reading is your ground terminal. Give that a try. If that doesn't work you must have an internal short in the new starter.

 

[thephridge]

I would guess you have the power to the starter on the wrong terminals. Get out your digital multimeter...if you don't have one Harbor Freight sells them for sure for less than 10 bucks and surely numerous other places. Put it on the Ohms measurement type and lowest scale...like 200 Ohms. Touch the leads together and get a reading....you are measuring the resistance of the test leads which needs to be subtracted from the following measurements:

With the starter installed in it's mount and the 12v and ground lead disconnected, touch the Bendix/shaft and individually connect the other lead to each of the two terminals. One will show a lower Ohm reading than the other. The lowest Ohm reading is your ground terminal. Give that a try. If that doesn't work you must have an internal short in the new starter.

Thanks. We'll give it a whirl.