seized OMC 1978 5.0 (305) 800 - SOS

[ekmanspiral]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum.

After working on my boat yesterday, I was so blue that I could hardly sleep last night.

I have a 1978 Seaswirl with a 185 OMC (GM305) 800 sterndrive. It was running fine although I noticed the starter was labouring. I was doing a tune up and after replacing the parts I was cranking the engine to get it started to set the timing. The starter was really labouring (barely turning over the engine) and I tried my truck battery which I know is good with the same result. I decided to change the starter and cables. The starter was an automotive starter. After relacing the starter and cables the motor will not crank. I have tried turning it over by hand (without the plugs) and it does not turn. The bolt turned a little so I stopped trying as I didnot want to break the balancer bolt in the crankshaft.

When I was cranking it with the second battery I didnot run water through the earmuffs.

The boat sat (with the plugs in) for 3-4 weeks until now.

The 3 thoughts I have are

1. There was something providing a drag in the sterndrive that caused the starter to labour and this has now seized.
2. that I should have ran water when I was cranking it and have damaged something.
3. when trying to start it the gas cleaned the cylinder walls and the rings have rusted to the cylinder walls. (probably not)

Any help with ideas about how to further diagnose this would be much appreciated.

Neil

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: seized OMC 1978 5.0 (305) 800 - SOS

Might try pulling the spark plugs and see what squirts out

 

[Kainon]

Re: seized OMC 1978 5.0 (305) 800 - SOS

The 3 thoughts I have are

1. There was something providing a drag in the sterndrive that caused the starter to labour and this has now seized. - The outdrive or engine being seized would cause you to not be able to have the starter not turn at all.

2. that I should have ran water when I was cranking it and have damaged something. - You may have damaged the Impeller


3. when trying to start it the gas cleaned the cylinder walls and the rings have rusted to the cylinder walls. (probably not) - Well.. they wouldn't rust, unless there was water in there and it sat for a few days like that.

I recommend, removing the outdrive ( and replacing the impeller ), make sure the Battery Wires are Tight and CLEAN.. use a knife or razor blade edge and scrape the connections clean & shiny.

Use a pair of pliers to tighten the wing nuts, better yet, replace the wing nuts with nyloc nuts ( nylon locking nuts )

Even with the plugs out of the engine you may not be able to turn over the engine, it depends on how much drag is on the main and rod bearings and piston/ring clearance..

Once you get the engine to turn over good without the plugs in tHink about doing a compression test

make sure you dont have any water spraying from the plug holes - check your engine oil too

You can sometimes rent one from a local Auto parts store.

If the distributor is loose and the timing is Off it can actually cause the engine to turn over slowly.

 

[Kainon]

Re: seized OMC 1978 5.0 (305) 800 - SOS

PS.. How do you know it was an AUTO Starter and not a Marine Starter?

It would still work the same, still get rusty and fail, just more likely to cause a bad day.

 

[ekmanspiral]

Re: seized OMC 1978 5.0 (305) 800 - SOS

I'm not 100% sure it is an AUTO starter as the numbers were rusted over but one of the wire connectors inside the solenoid was broken and I liked the idea of a new starter. I think the starter and its connections are a mute point now as I repaired the old starter and and I used jumper cables to directly power (and ground) the starter. Neither starter will turn (at all) the engine.

I guess the next step will be to remove the outdrive and and see if the engine turns over (and replace the impeller).

I've never worked on an outdrive but I have a manual and I'll search this forum for any other info.

Not to belabour my stupidity... but is it wrong to crank the engine without running water to the earmuffs?

Thanks for the help,

Neil