5.7 L 574APARY STARTER PROBLEMS, please help, if possible! Thanks!!

[CLESean]

Hi all fellow omc owners! New to the forum and new to omc’s. Lol I’m having trouble with the starter/solenoids on my omc. I have an 87 Rinker with an omc 5.7 motor, model is 574APARY, I believe. Starter started making wonky grinding noises and then quit. Put a used backup starter in which bench tested fine and it started right up. Cycled it a few times after the boat got up to temp. On the 4th or so, the grinding happened again. I’m not sure if it’s electrical because the one small terminal is getting 4 or so volts constantly and drops to 3 or so while the ignition is cranking. The other small terminal gets 12.5 or so while cranking and the large lug gets 12.5 or so constant and cranking. I’m hoping that something isn’t right there and not allowing the bendix to go all the way into the flywheel and causing it to contract/grind. Other than that, the only other two things i think it may be I that the starter needs shimmed up or down or the flywheel is bad. The boat did overheat which I’d imagine could warp the flywheel and the flywheel is slightly chewed up. (I’m going to attach a pic of the flywheel) Really hoping I don’t have to pull the motor and do the flywheel. It is what it is either way, just wanna enjoy the last little bit of summer left as I spent all summer updating the boat inside and out because the boat was mechanically sound. Well, mechanically sound prior to the overheating which was due to the impeller sucking up **** prior to my “maiden voyage” after refurbishing the cosmetics. The starter did sound a little funky too when I started the boat at home on muffs prior to the overheating. So it’s hard to say on a lot of levels with this thing. Thanks in advance for any input! I’m new to this forum and am glad to help out others with what I’m knowledgeable about as well. 15 year boater, 1st year omc owner. Lol

 

[alldodge]

Should not need shimming
An overheat will not hurt the flywheel
Flywheel teeth has some marking but don't see anything that showing it needs replaced

Load test the Bat, clean the connections including ground connection on the block. If that doesn't improve it, most likely need another starter

 

[kenny nunez]

You can try replacing the starter drive with a NEW one and not a rebuilt one.
Your starter may still be good but a worn drive can cause problems. When starters are rebuilt the rebuilders usually use rebuilt drives. So, if you have a rebuilder in your area be sure to tell them you want a new drive. Needless to say you want to keep your original marine starter if you get it rebuilt.
Do not get one from a auto store.

 

[Lou C]

I put an ARCO permenant magnet gear reduction starter in my OMC 4.3. Much better than the old direct drive starters. Light and spins the motor faster and draws less current as well. Well worth the price!

 

[Scott Danforth]

one of the contributors to a grinding starter is bad connections at the starter

 

[CLESean]

Thanks all! I went ahead and got the gear reduction starter meticulously went through my wiring and sanded any grounds and all connections. Thought I’d pull a spark plug out of curiosity since it did over heat and had water in the spark plug hole. Pulled the rest and turned the motor with a ratchet and blew water out of all the holes. Drained oil and it looked like chocolate milk. This would probably explain the starter problem as it had too much oil and water making it harder to turn along with not being as lubricated. Now my mission is to figure out how screwed I am. I have someone coming tomorrow to help diagnose it. Hoping water just got i from the Niagara Falls that was under my hatch from the rubber exhaust couplers popping and getting water in there somehow? If that’s possible, otherwise I’m hoping just an intake manifold as I do have a backup. Otherwise head gasket. Don’t know what to expect. Motor ran up to temp and regulated the temp fine after the overheating and still turns. Just really hoping I’m not up **** creek. We shall see. Thanks again for the advice though regarding the starter, now onto more headaches. My fault for being too anxious to get it out when I knew it overheated while sitting, so I can’t be mad at anyone but myself. Another lesson learned..

 

[Scott Danforth]

a compression test, leak down test and cooling system pressure test will tell you if your up ship creek or not.

 

[Lou C]

Yep and the faster you get the water out of the oil the better! Could be blown HGs….
Blown intake gaskets will put water in the oil but not in cylinders. Water gets in cylinders from bad head gaskets, cracked head or block or bad exhaust manifolds & elbows.
If you wind up finding blown HGs from an overheat have the heads magnafluxed to check for cracks…..