Me thinks you gotta broken starter.

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

My last boat with 454's clanked/clicked while cranking. Boat had so many issues I pulled the motors and found teeth missing on the flywheel. Starter seemed to click 1 to 3 times when it hit the bad spot. The engine had very uneven compression so it so the clicking did not sound like it was even sounding.

Mine is a consistent clicking, even sounding...I almost would have to have half my teeth missing to have the sound I have...at least I hope so because I wasn't planning on pulling my motor this season!!!

Take out all the sparkplugs and spin it over,if the load on the starter is causing somethig ital show up, if its in the gear or starter flywheel ring it should still make it or atleast mayby not as loud.

Im guessing here


your saying it turns over enough to crank,but is it slower than norm?

put a new arco starter on it, no more clicking!!! Cranks great....I guess that is what I get for buying a junk $69 starter from DB Electrical!!! The thing lasted a full 2 boating seasons!!!

I sell Arco Starters. If there is no core on the unit, take it apart and see if all the brushes are locked up in the holder and lots of rust etc... Im just interested to know.....

took it apart, absolutely no rust...I've never took a starter apart before, so not sure what a starter on a boat with 30 hrs should look like, I don't see anything obviously wrong with it. The thing seemed to crank slow vs other starters I have had, even with 2 fresh batteries.

I didn't read all the comments, but mine was doing the same thing a couple months ago. I tested batteries etc. ended up being a bad starter. Changed started and fires right up.

Good luck.

it isn't the starter motor. it is the solenoid. there are 2 windings in it. if one is open it will be ok with tons of juice. buy a new sol, put it on the cheapo starter and you have a spare. i love spares. as long as you have them you never need them!!

With 30 hours it should look just like you described. Clean inside no rust. Are all the brushes moving freely in the holder? there are 4 total....