'97 7.4L carb with Bravo 3 drive. Transom bearing is shot, got wet and was growling loudly during last run last fall. I figured I would deal with it this spring.

Spring is here. I charge her up, turned the key, it turns over steady but slowly, straining with the transom bearing making even more horrible noise than ever. I figure my wet transom bearing has frozen up good over the winter. I will change it of course.

My new problem is I think I burned out my starter or popped a fuse or something because now all I get is the click when I turn the key. Small solenoid click only, not the loud click of the starter engaging. Big breaker behind carb is not tripped.

Is there another breaker somewhere else I can reset? Once I get the drive off it should turn over easy again. Can I jump directly to the started to see if the starter is still good? What else beside a dead starter would cause this?

Starter has always been fine and it turned over for a while, then I turned off the key and the next try all I got was the quiet click, no engaging.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions welcome...

Thanks

Never heard of a transom bearing,,, I assume you mean gimbal bearing. How did it get wet? If it did, you have other problems.

You are talking about a slave solenoid its the small one one the front of the engine. Yes you can put a remote starter on the starter and bypass it. If the slave is clicking Its probably bad.

I have learned there is a 90A fuse right on the solenoid on the starter. Will check that first.

When you pop that one the whole boat is dead, except for what is hard wired to the batt

Turned out there is no 90A fuse on the starter solenoid, only in the diagrams but not in reality, so the starter was dead. It was one of those mini jobs so an easy swap.

The transom bearing was solid rust...The new one is the sealed type, hope it lasts. Another easy swap.

The impeller was toast as well. Lots of repairs this year....