Sport Jet 120 Starter Motor

Barnacle_Bill

Admiral
Joined
Feb 8, 2004
Messages
6,469
Re: Sport Jet 120 Starter Motor

Errr it won't start the motor anymore. But signs of them going bad can be drawing too much current, not spinning fast enough, or perhaps making weird noises. If you suspect you have a bad starter you can have it tested by your local auto electric shop. But 95% of the time starter problems are due to bad connections or a bad battery (regardless of age).
 

H20Rat

Vice Admiral
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
5,199
Re: Sport Jet 120 Starter Motor

Errr it won't start the motor anymore. But signs of them going bad can be drawing too much current, not spinning fast enough, or perhaps making weird noises. If you suspect you have a bad starter you can have it tested by your local auto electric shop. But 95% of the time starter problems are due to bad connections or a bad battery (regardless of age).

i don't know if anyone else has had my luck with SJ starters, but I've had a 95 and 120 Sj', they both needed starters within a year of me buying them!

one spun over really slowly, one just suddenly died. If you search around you can get a new starter for under $100. OEM is horrendously expensive, and it isn't that hard to replace either. I replaced my last one at the dock, with whitecaps rolling in.
 

calledinsick

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 13, 2010
Messages
160
Re: Sport Jet 120 Starter Motor

Agreed, most often corroded connections are the main issue. Some additional testing:

Make sure that the battery is fully charged. Get a voltmeter check across the battery terminals. Should be a 12+ volts from your battery. 12.6-12.8V at rest is considered a full charge, will be more if recently connected to a charger.

While cranking (I pull the safety lanyard to make sure it won't start...DON'T START OUT OF WATER!) measure the voltage across the battery terminals. It should be somewhere around 12 volts or just below. If it is much lower than that, say 10 volts, then the battery is bad and should be replaced. If it is around 12 volts then leave the negative voltmeter lead on the battery and probe the starter. The voltage there should be 12 volts or so, not much lower. If it still hasn't started and the battery runs down again then feel the cables to the starter - are they hot? If so then the starter motor may be shot and is drawing too much current. If you can get a clamp-on ammeter then use it to measure the current draw of the starter motor. According to the manual, starter draw is 110-200 amps under load.

Hope this helps!

Brian
www.calledinsick.com
 

Vshort

Cadet
Joined
Jun 28, 2010
Messages
6
Re: Sport Jet 120 Starter Motor

Any suggestions on where to find one? The starter shop said it coul not be rebuilt.
 

calledinsick

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 13, 2010
Messages
160
Re: Sport Jet 120 Starter Motor

Don't know your Year or Serial number, but the starter looks to be pretty consistent (looked at SportJet 120, 1995-1999, multi serial number ranges). I'd verify the part number first using your year/serial number, but if you do a search on 50-898265003 you should find plenty of listings.

Brian
 

kend301

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Jul 4, 2009
Messages
1,005
Re: Sport Jet 120 Starter Motor

If you search ebay for sport jet under boat parts you will have all the options you need , several starters on there .
 
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