Starter issue, possibly water related

[Jgcrock99]

So, had my boat on the water and a red cell came up out of nowhere and swamped my boat, 1995 19' chaparral runabout. my bilge pump isn't automatic so my bilge took on a bit of water. I ran down in the rain and turned on the bilge pump on and got the water down to a good level within 5 mins. The neighbors had an open covered dock so I tried to crank and drive over to the covered area to finish the night. Motor turned over fine but wouldn't fire, did it like three times and then it quit trying. Batteries work fine, did I fry my starter or solenoid? Will it dry out and potentially work?

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Was the starter under water?

 

[Lou C]

If your motor is cranking (turning over) fast enough to start but no start your starter may be ok, for now at least but you may have gotten water in the distributor. Salt or fresh water? If salt and water got over the starter just go buy a new one now. If fresh if you dry it out it may still work

 

[Jgcrock99]

Was the starter under water?

I don't think it was completely submerged but I'm thinking it got to it for sure. Happened in the middle of the night so I couldn't actually see how much water it actually was. I made a mad dash to the pier and turned on the bilge pump. It cleared faster than I thought it would so may not have been as much water as I thought. Starter turned it over but ultimately stopped for some reason. I'm hoping it'll just dry and be good but it's a brand new starter of course. It definitely wasn't under water when I tried to crank it but wondering what the possible problems would be. It's fresh water.

 

[Jgcrock99]

If your motor is cranking (turning over) fast enough to start but no start your starter may be ok, for now at least but you may have gotten water in the distributor. Salt or fresh water? If salt and water got over the starter just go buy a new one now. If fresh if you dry it out it may still work

It turned it over a few times it just wouldn't kick off, it's a carburator so doesn't always start right away. Then it stopped doing anything, didn't even bump it. It was only 3 times so I know I didn't drain the battery. All accessories were working just stopped turning over.