Starter motor - Time to replace?

[eavega]

Getting the Ghostrider (1988 Mercruiser 3.0L ) ready for boating season, I finally rolled it out of the garage this weekend to shake out the cobwebs and verify the ignition upgrade I did. After correcting some issues I had with the ignition upgrade, I was able to get the motor started, but it seemed that the starter motor would not engage correctly (grinding noise, and motor wouldn't start). I removed the starter motor for inspection and found that the housing around the pinion gear was full of metal shavings, and I could see where the lobes had been grinding a little bit both on the starter gear and the flywheel. I had not had this problem last season at all, and would figure if there was something seriously wrong with the starter I would've noticed it last year. I concluded that all the failed starts while trying to resolve the ignition upgrade issue might have knocked something out of kilter. I pulled the bendix shaft up and down a few times, put some 3-in-1 oil on it, and re-installed the starter. I started the boat about 5 times successively without any further grinding noise. Did I solve this problem, or should I be looking at replacing the starter some time in the future? My concern would be 1. I can't start the boat while on the water and 2. if something is out of kilter with the starter motor I'm going to chew up the teeth on the flywheel, and the flywheel does not look like something trivial to replace on this engine. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.

Rgds

 

[Don S]

Re: Starter motor - Time to replace?

If you have concerns, take it to your local, starter/alternator/electric motor shop and have them go through it. Could be rust and corrosion is the problem, but the shop will fix it for you a LOT cheaper than you can buy one of those cheap offshore aftermarket starters for.