Lspark

First post. Could use some help.

1987 Merc 25 hp 2 stroke.

- electric start issues. For last 6-7 mos motor wont start. Used pull start instead and worked fine.
now trying to figure out starting issue.

when depress start button, starter spins the bendix upward but doesn’t seem to have enough oomph to engage flywheel. Made sure battery is charged and charger says all is good. Retry and same, put jumper cables on it from auto, still the same.

ordered new starter and starter solenoid from amazon and installed. Same !

Any suggestions of where to look after this ???

captbone

Remove and clean the Bendex. Old crusted grease is blocking it.

Lspark

Thanks. U still think that might be problem even with a new starter ?? I could see it with the old one and ive had that issue before on another motor and it was easy to fix. But it didnt seem to make any difference with the old starter on this motor. And I wouldnt think old grease would be an issue with a new starter. I guess i cld squirt some wd40 and see.

captbone

Carefully touch the jumper cables from the car directly to the starter. Ground to the outboard block and positive to the hot stud on the starter.

I will bet it turns right over. I suspect the issue is voltage and amperage drop due to corrosion or a bad connection between the battery and starter or the battery is bad.

I didn’t read about the new starter. That eliminates the bendix.

Lspark

Thank u Captbone. U were correct. It was the positive battery connection. It didnt look broken. But it was bad.

captbone

Great news. Thank you for the follow up. Now you have spare starter.