Just put on a brand new stater last July. If it started the boat 25 times that would be ob the high side. Well it just went out again! I went out of the way and bought a brand new one, not a re-maunfactured one. Has anyone else had trouble with these new high torque starters???

What Happened? What type of motor are you running?

Did the starter motor burn out? Did the solenoid quit? Did the gear self destruct?

We need more details!

-Larry

Well I ran the boat the 1st time this year on Friday for about 1 hr. Boat started no problem. Went to go out today and another story. Hit the key the started engaged and made a god awful noise. Sounded like the motor let go. Than just a clicking like the battery was dead.Made a couple phone call and was told it sounded like the starter let go. I pulled it at the dock and while it was still wired up and hit the key and she did spin and the gear kicked out. So I put it back on and the only thing it would do is make the clicking noise. But just didn't have enough power to turn the motor. I'm running a 454 mag. I've never had a problem like this before with starters.

O.K I just went out and with the starter out jumped it with some battery cables. She seems to work fine. Could it be the solenoid on the engine that would cause it not to turn over???

could be your risers are leaking and your compressing water not gas!!!!pull the plugs and roll it over to make sure they arent leaking!!!

When I put a high torque in I found the bolts were too long because the housing was thinner. I had to shim it, it dropped too low. That sounds like your deal, the bendix is moving out but not hitting the flywheel, or just kissing it. look at that first.

I went the cheap route and bought an automotive starter 2 seasons back. I couldn't start my motor at the beginning of this season so I pulled the starter and brought it to autozone where they had a bench set up to test it and it worked fine on the bench but when I bolted it back up it failed again. They will appear to spin up normally when there is no load on them. My starter sits about 8 inches above the waterline inside my bilge and I can imagine it gets soaked the way I drive.

I hate to even say it, but when this happened to me it was because my bearings were shot. The starter didn't have enough torque to turn over a seized up motor. Try to turn the engine by hand - if it's REALLY hard, you may have the same problem...

Well I may have solved the mystery. We ran the boat Sunday and while coming into the ramp had one hell of a storm roll in and took on a lot of water. Sump kept things in check but everything was soaked ! Well I decided to pull the back two plugs and found they were wet with water! seems we must have taken in some water through the above water exhaust when we shut it down on Sunday. So Monday when we tried to start it , locked up the motor. I pulled all 8 plugs but was still not able to get the starter to roll the engine over. Tried to manully turn it over but all I had with me was a small 3/8 drive ratchet and just couldn't seem to budge the big block. I'll take a large breaker bar back tomorrow and see If I can't break her free. The guy at the marina said he see's this all this time and that the motor should be fine. But did state the starter still may be shot due to the motor locking up. Needless to say I won't get much sleep tonight worry about wheather I'm in for a $300 starter of $5,000 re-power bill. Anyone else had this problem??

Not to this extreme but water thru a riser gasket milked the oil and took out a cam lobe. You would have had to have water very deep to get in, it almost has to go thru the carb. Could be a riser gasket, head gasket or any number of palces a crack can form. How does the oil look.