Johnson - appears to be low battery

[duke714@hotmail.com]

I recently replaced my lower unit with NOS from an independent dealer. I had some issues getting the shift arm in the LU tied to the motor but got it all together. I've tried starting it only to get slow cranking what you would get from a low battery. The battery is brand new and fully charged.

Also, the shift cable is a bit off as when I put the Shift handle in neutral, forward is still engaged. I can mess around with this though to get it in neutral and can attempt to start it, to no good.

I've mentioned the LU cause I' guessing that is the source of the problem. Everything worked fine previously. Can you help?

Thanks very much,
Geno

 

[ezeke]

Re: Johnson - appears to be low battery

edit

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Johnson - appears to be low battery

90% of starter problems are bad connections. remove and clean both ends of the battery cables, so that they are shiney, also the cable from the solenoid to starter. check for nicks in the cables. and make sure the connectors are on the wire good. the cable tend to corrode from the inside out, if nicked, corroded wires, and connections, heat up and cause resistance to the follow of electricity, thus the starter doesn't get enough. you can also take jumper cable pos battery post to large post on starter. with a good connection, the engine should spin. then if the starter is good clean everything and retest. then trouble shoot solenoid. starters can be rebuit at a starter/alternator shop, much cheaper than a new one.

also have the battery load tested at the auto parts store, free, i've had new batteries go bad

 

[duke714@hotmail.com]

Re: Johnson - appears to be low battery

Thanks very much for the response, they make sense.

I'll repost after I finish.

Regards,

 

[duke714@hotmail.com]

Re: Johnson - appears to be low battery

OK, I followed your recommendations and isolated the problem as the starter. I removed it, pulled the bottom off and checked the brushes - they were fine. The metallic surface that they press against was filthy black. I used spray cleaner, the kind used to take the scratching noise out of volume controls on radios and such, also sand paper, and got down to the copper. I also cleaned out the gaps between the copper plates.

That fixed the problem.

Thanks again for your help, and regards.