Hard starting 1150 - now starts great

[mirageflats]

I posted last year about a 1975 mercury 1150 I had aquired and had troubles getting it to start. The only way I could get it to start was to squirt gas in the carbs. Even then, when starting, the motor would start to fire but the bendix would kick out. I searched the forum and read many great posts...trying various ideas.<br /><br />I finally have it working the way it should so I thought I would share my experiences hoping it might help someone in the future. I did the usual carb and fuel pump rebuilds and those didnt help the starting problems. Spark was fine too. I did set the timing which seemed to help some, but the ultimate problem was the starter. <br /><br />The starter seemed like it was working ok, especially since I had no past history with the motor but I thought that I should check it just in case. I took the starter apart and one of the screws holding the metal bar and the field coil to the outer shell was just a 1/4 turn loose. That was allowing the metal bar to rub on the armature of the starter...rubbing so much that it wore grooves in the metal bar leaving metal filings inside the starter. I cleaned everything out and tightened up all the screws, and now the starter cranks like new, spinning the motor noticably faster than before.<br /><br />Now, it starts easily, every time.