Ground Problem?

[dfs]

Some solenoids use the mounting tab for the coil ground to battery. There will be a pair of heavy gauge load terminals and only a single lighter gauge coil terminal. If this is your type, make certain backside of mount tab is clean and bites onto clean mount/ground surface or the solenoid may only "sort of" click. Clean and tighten all connections, load and coil.

[beerman57]

Well, one BIG problem that I didn’t think of till today – last week and a half I did axles, springs and bunk mounts on their trailer – got back to the motor today – it’s froze up!!! Hopefully it’s just head gaskets, but BOTH bottom spark plugs showed a little rust, bottom seal? I’m going to see if I can free it up tomorrow, last time it ran was 4th of July weekend. Still doesn’t splain the funky starting problem, but that’s pretty minor right now.

[fleetwin]

Doesn’t sound good…..

[beerman57]

When the starter engages a stuck flywheel, does that limit (or not use) all 12V available? The solenoid and starter are trying to do their job.
It just dawned on me, the pistons/cylinders may be fine, if the bottom seal went, the bottom main bearing is toast. Saw it on an OMC 9.9/15hp, couldn’t budge the crankshaft using a breaker bar on the flywheel nut and hitting it with a hammer!

[frankr]

quote beerman57:

The almost new solenoid I have with me tests fine. The weird deal with the motor turning over but not starting until you jumped across the large solenoid posts, that is just completely baffling to me. After that the motor would start fine all day, until it was allowed to sit for a week or 2, then would have jump across the large posts again. Oh, the starter never seemed to be dragging before, not that I noticed anyway.
So, as I expected, there is probably nothing wrong with either solenoid. I’ll check the grounds and volts at the yellow/red, small solenoid terminal. I’m going to start on new axles, springs and bunk brackets for this boat’s trailer tomorrow. But at 3pm there is the celebration of life for my welder friend.

OK, you say it tests fine. Did you actually do a voltage drop test across it as Bill previously suggested? If it clicks, the primary part is OK. But a voltage drop test across the big lugs is the only meaningful way to test the high amperage contacts.

EDIT: I didn’t see the later posts. Of course if the powerhead was stuck or partially stuck the starter would draw unusually high amperage, which would reduce the voltage. But I still stand by what I just said about a voltage drop test. That is if the motor is worth monkeying with.

[fleetwin]

Well, nothing to lose by pulling the heads at this point…Unfortunately, if the lower seal is at fault, water has usually been pumped up to the top bearing and has rained down on everything in between…Lower seal problems usually don’t seize the pistons to the walls, so I would suspect something else if the cylinder walls are badly rusted/seized. These closed deck engines have a tendency to corrode the tops of the cylinder sleeves, the design tends to trap salt water in that area unfortunately. I was hoping OMC/BRP would have gone to the oring sealing method like on the 60 degree engines, but don’t think that ever happened….

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