Brand new starter bendix does not spin up!

[Vinny L]

Hi all, so my old starter died on me last weekend so I ordered and just installed a brand new Sierra starter. Thought I’d be back on the water tomorrow...

When cranking the motor just spins and the gear/bendix does not spin up to engage the flywheel. I had the same result using jumper leads directly from the battery. The gear spins pretty fast, but it does not move upwards at all.

Is this a defective starter or am I missing something? Yes the battery is fully charged.

Boat details:
1991 Johnson 88SPL

Thanks,
Vinny

 

[boobie]

Is your battery hooked up correctly ??

 

[iggyw1]

Your battery may fully charged, but check & clean both ends of your battery cables. Clean them so they are all very clean and shiny. Clean & check the cable going from the selenoid to the starter too. Check the battery cables for nicks. Try a few drops of 3 in 1 oil on the shaft to the new starter. MAKE sure the battery is FULLY charged. After cleaning all of the cables, try another known good, fully charged battery. 90% of starter problems as you describe are from dirty or bad cables.

Centrifugal force caused by spinning is what makes the starter gear pop up & engage the flywheel. It has to spin the right RPM's to do this.

 

[F_R]

Actually, it's inertia. But whatever you call it, the starter has to spin almost instantly and at high speed and the pinion lags behind, which is what makes it spin up the helix on the shaft.

So why isn't the starter spinning instantly, that is the question. Could be an old worn out starter, or could be low voltage dur to defective battery or cables. Battery or cables being far more common.

 

[iggyw1]

Thanks for the correction on my calling it RPM's, F_R. Could it be that the pinion is stuck into a position on the helix and not lagging behind, so that 's why it won't pop up? Would a drop or two of thin oil help it if it were stuck?

 

[Scott Danforth]

99% of the time, cleaning all the battery terminals including the mounting face to the block is all it takes

 

[F_R]

Thanks for the correction on my calling it RPM's, F_R. Could it be that the pinion is stuck into a position on the helix and not lagging behind, so that 's why it won't pop up? Would a drop or two of thin oil help it if it were stuck?

Possible, but very unlikely. If you can turn it up and down with your fingers, it is ok. A drop of oil won't hurt anything. Just don't slosh it on.

 

[boobie]

Is the battery in backwards ???

 

[Vinny L]

Thanks all.
So first off the battery that I thought was good was not fully charged as I thought and there seems to be a problem with it. I used an emergency jump pack the starter bendix spun up nicely and the motor started. I think the battery is faulty since the voltage drops below 8V when the motor spins up, and that is without the bendix gear engaging the flywheel.

I will still clean all of the terminals as suggested by everyone and make sure that I have as low of a voltage drop as possible once the new solenoid is installed. Being an electrical guy engineer of my cables are properly sized, maybe oversized.

What got me was that the starter was brand new, and with my multimeter at work I had no idea that a cell might be bad. I also think my solenoid is on its way out, but I didn't have to much voltage drop over it.

I'm frustrated since this battery is less than a year old, maybe vibration got since we've been trailering quite a bit, and also it goes to show that one shouldn't use dual purpose deep cycle/starting batteries for cranking.

Regards,
Vinny