Bendix not engaging flywheel on a 88 spl

[Clyde Jones]

So i drove my boat out 7.5 hours from southern California to Laughlin Nevada to go fishing last weekend...

Got to the lake and hear/see the bendix spinning but it doesn't engage the flywheel.

Battery has 12.6 volts and at the solenoid while cranking it has 12.0 volts...

Am I right to assume the starter has failed? And is it worth it to get a good 150$ starter or should i just be a cheap bastard and get one of the 60$ ones

 

[Clyde Jones]

i should mention that it started 2 days prior to the trip. and the bendix shaft has been lubricated.

 

[sutor623]

How old is the battery? 12.6 V is 12.6 V but that doesn't necessarily tell the whole story............

Lots of guys on here like to spend the time to rebuild the starter. May just be a bad bendix, or there is enough wear in the starter motor itself that the amperage isn't getting through to spin the starter enough to engage the bendix. Just a quick clean up and off ya go.

If it were me, and I were positive that all my connections were clean, bright and tight, and that my battery cables didn't have any corrosion in them, I'd probably just buy a $60 starter and be done with it. Of course, my motor has a rope under the hood that I can wrap around the flywheel and pull if I have to manually start her..........

When I first read your post I thought you drove the boat 7.5 hrs from SoCo. I was like man, that's ballsy. I love taking runs on my boat, but I think you'd need a set of earmuffs on a trip that long!!!!!!!!

 

[jakedaawg]

Load test battery first. Volts says little

 

[jakedaawg]

I'll expand that comment. After bouncing down the road for eight hours enough crap could have shaken off the plates to make the battery fail a load test. The stuff shorts out the plates at the bottom of the battery. Hence the load test to determine cranking amps.

 

[flyingscott]

When you say bendix do you mean the starter is just spinning and not kicking the gear up. What did you lube it with if whatever you put on it could be sticking it down. If the starter is spinning probably an issue with the bendix even a slow spinning starter can kick the bendix up.

 

[Clyde Jones]

the battery is from September of 2015 so its like 7 months old... i did load test it at my shop and it passed the load test as far as i know. (it dropped down to 10.5 and bounced right back to 12... usually a bad battery will drop to like 8 or below, or not bounce back to 12, but that's automotive)

and i have new terminals to connect to the battery and they are clean. but i have not touched any of the wires at the starter itself, ie the ground that connects to the block of the motor.

and i shot some wd40 in there to help the bendix lift up, and i can manually lift it up with my hand to the flywheel and it seems to slide nicely..

it sucks cause i fired the boat up two days ago and everything seemed fine. but...
i will admit the first crank did seem a little off... It cranked slow for a second like a low battery problem. but like i said the battery is under a year old, i've been in the water with it 4 times and it seemed to pass a load test.

 

[Clyde Jones]

maybe i should reconsider the battery failing, having bounced around the road for that long.