1977 850 thunderbolt starter wont engage

[ccarpen4753]

Brushes looked ok, springs are still strong, and all the connections look good still.

 

[Chris1956]

Gee, I had thought your brushes and commutator would have been smoother. That starter just looks used, not rebuilt. Commutator is second picture, BTW.

There should be a bolt on the top part of the starter casing, that would take that heavy ground wire under the starter mounting bolt.

 

[ccarpen4753]

Thanks Chris. So my battery ground goes to the starter mount and the other heavy wire needs to be mounted on the starter case, right?

 

[DavidMoore]

No Title

If you by the "other heavy duty wire" you mean the "new heavy duty wire" then yes, the new cable should run between the starter casing and the starter mount just like the cable d shown in my 1st post. (use the bolt on the starter casing shown in the photo)

You could try it first with jumper cables, just make sure the negative jumper is placed on the bolt shown in the photo.

 

[ccarpen4753]

The new wire is my ground from the battery. Should that run to the bolt on the starter casing or should I run another heavy wire from the starter casing to the cowl ground and leave my battery grounded to the cowl?

 

[DavidMoore]

run another heavy wire from the starter casing to the cowl ground and leave the battery grounded to the cowl.

 

[Chris1956]

As David says, the cowling support is grounded, or should be via the ground wires from the lower cowling to the block. The ground wire that the starter should be using is clearly visible in your pictures. What is not visible is whether it is connected to anything. It is certainly not connected correctly. Remember the starter is mounted in rubber, and makes no electrical connection to the engine mounting points or block.

 

[ccarpen4753]

The smaller wire on the cowl ground runs to one of the mounting screws on my switchbox. I checked the commutator on my newer starter for ohms and it did check ok, but when I hooked it up to my new battery charger on 10amps it would barely spin. I hooked up my old starter and it spun just fine. I am assuming that my old starter is fine and the new starter is a POS. Ill be putting my old starter back in and grounding it like you guys have said to do and see what happens.

Thanks for all the help. Im new to outboards and am a novice at electrical. If you couldnt tell.

 

[DavidMoore]

Take a look at the photo in the post entitled "Whats this wire" looks similar to your engine and you will see a bit of the cable I'm more and more convinced your missing.

 

[ccarpen4753]

Yep david thats the wire I was missing. Hopefully that fixes the issue.

Thanks for all the help

 

[ccarpen4753]

Success!!! put the old starter in, wired everything up like you guys said to and after a little re-priming of the fuel system she took off and ran!!! I am super stoked-had this boat for 2yrs and I finally have it running. Thanks so much for all your guys help. It was definitely the starter not being grounded that was the problem.

 

[DavidMoore]

Way to go, pleased for you