Engine hard to pull start?

[c_schuchardt]

I have a late 80's 60hp 3 cyl 2 cycle Mercury outboard. One morning i was cruising up river in my ol? Cajun Cutlass when the engine dies. After a long day of paddling i make it home put the battery on the charger and tried to pull start the engine and troubleshoot the problem at home come to find out it was almost impossible to pull start this thing. i start looking for the obvious problems and find the 3rd cyl's spark plug porcelain had cracked, my guess is from the sudden stop the river water pushing the back of the boat hit the hot spark plug and it cracked from the temp change. I headed down to the auto parts store to get a new set of plugs and maybe some advice get home and pull out all 3 plugs and for the heck of it try to pull the engine around to my surprise(thinking the engine had seized) i almost threw out my arm it went around without any problem at all. so thinking maybe for some reason the spark plug was the problem i put all three back in and try again harder than heck again. This is where i left off. I have not tried a fresh battery with the new spark plugs to see if the starter will turn it. But if anyone has heard of anything like this happening or any ideas what to try next i would appreciate it. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Engine hard to pull start?

Pull starting a 60 HP motor is no small chore and yes, it will pull very easy with the plugs out as there is no compression. Your idea of "pulling hard" and mine may be totally different, it's difficult to tell if there is a problem or not. If the engine spins freely with the plugs out, I suspect you are merely experiencing normal compression.

 

[c_schuchardt]

Re: Engine hard to pull start?

new information, same problem. I was looking closer at the problem and found the engine stops/gets harder to turn when the lowest cylinder is closest to the spark plug. my compression seems good but is there any problems that may cause one cylinder to pass harder than the other 2? pretty borad question im sure. should i just plan on spending the winter tearing it down and finding the problem?

 

[MercGuy]

Re: Engine hard to pull start?

I've owned a mid '80s 3 cyl 50 hp, and I currently own a 1998 115 4 cyl.

I've pull started them both, and found each of them very easy to start by pull starting. Since the rope wraps around the (large) fly wheel, it in effect creates a low gear ratio and aids in the ease of pulling.

The biggest problem I ever had with my 115 was that it was trimmed up and the battery died. That forced me to pull down towards the transom, which was awkward, but worked.

I'm a die hard carbureted 2 stroke guy (a vanishing breed), and the ability to rope start my engine is one of the reasons why.

I can float on the water and relax with my radio, GPS, and stern light on without worrying if I'll have enough juice left to fire up and go home.

Of course it's not something that I would want to do very often, but it sure is nice knowing that I can if I have to.

Cheers !!