85hp Rebuilt - Difficult to Turn Over

HowlinGale

Cadet
Joined
Nov 6, 2010
Messages
12
Hi Guys,

I've rebuilt my Force 85hp (1989). Basically everything stripped down and put back together, including having #2 cylinder re-bored and replacing the piston and honing all cylinders. It's been a project and taken quite a while. I got to the position of turning her over for the first time today. The starter motor can't get her spinning, it tries and gets a short way and stops again - go, stop, go, stop - as if there was something sticking.

New starter motor and fully charged battery.
Tried direct connection from battery to starter to see if there may be a bad connection. Same problem.

There seems to be a lot of compression and takes quite an effort to turn her over using a wrench on the flywheel nut.

Removed the spark plugs and she spins over just great. Put in one plug and it turned over but a good bit slower, as I'd expect (with some compression being present). Tried 2 plugs and that resulted in the original problem re-occuring.

Anyone got any ideas/advice? Could I have done something wrong in the rebuild resulting in too much compression - I'm thinking exhaust ports or similar?
 

foodfisher

Captain
Joined
Feb 18, 2009
Messages
3,756
Re: 85hp Rebuilt - Difficult to Turn Over

Load test battery, clean wiring connections, inspect/clean starter.
 

HowlinGale

Cadet
Joined
Nov 6, 2010
Messages
12
Re: 85hp Rebuilt - Difficult to Turn Over

Load test battery, clean wiring connections, inspect/clean starter.

Thanks Foodfisher. I should have done this right away but thinking that the starter motor was new and the battery had a fresh charge I ignored it. Doh! Battery is no good. New battery bought today and the engine turns over fine now.
 
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