Mercruiser Sterndrive limit switch broken?

[thumpar]

Take the drive off. You can then see if it will turn over.

 

[ex0r]

I will do that tomorrow. Out of curiosity, if the problem is in fact the drive, are they easy to rebuild yourself, or does it require a shop to do it, or purchase a new one?

 

[thumpar]

They require special tools to rebuild. You can try turning the drive to see if it is locked up. Most likely it is not but you need to do the maintenance on it anyway so might as well pull it now to check.

 

[ex0r]

Yeah, I'm going to check but it looks like this is going to be more of a project than I want to invest time and/or money into. I may just salvage the boat or give it to the first person who is interested in taking it. I've got two more boats that are already in working order I could be out on the lake enjoying right now.

 

[ex0r]

So.. what do you suggest I do to try turning the motor over? I have the starter removed, the plugs removed, and the drive off the back, but the bolt holes on the balancer are rusted and there are no more threads.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... Make sure the belt is tight, 'n put a wrench on the alternator to turn the motor,....

Or,...

Put the starter back on,.....

 

[ex0r]

Don't have an alternator on mine, only the power steering pump and flywheel. I do believe there's a stator behind the flywheel or else I have no idea how the battery would recharge. The starter is currently out of service as the solenoid broke trying to put it back on.

 

[thumpar]

Yea, the 3.7l has a stator.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... Try a prybar through the starter hole onto the ring gear then,...

 

[ex0r]

Thank you for the diagnostics guys. It appears from checking into it further that something inside the motor is bound up. I removed the rear drive and the drive moves by itself. I fear the one time it turned over, one of the valves bent or something else bound up. Instead of replacing the motor I think we are just going to salvage what we can for it for parts for the other speed boat we have, as well as any electronics we don't have in the other one, and sell the drive off as a used one somewhere.

it's unfortunate because this one had much more horsepower than the current speedboat we have, but it is what it is. Luckily we only had $100 into it, and we could technically just say we spent $100 more than the guy was asking for for the pontoon so no hard feelings.