Starter motor

[crieders]

My motor was always slow to turn over. May be a wire or the starter motor. How much of a deal to replace the starter motor. Its 23-24 years old. Engine has less than 800 hours on this 1990 boat

[sailaway]

Sounds like it might be a weak battery. Or the  length of the battery wire is to long. cleaning all connection might help. I had to move my battery closer to my engine. If helped a lot. Charlie

[Ron Hill]

Cliff : As posted on this web site many times before, the slow turn over of your starter is probably caused by a poor electrical connection.  Usually it is a bad wire terminal.

Before I would even think of a new starter, I'd install new terminals on both the positive and the ground wires.  Clean the battery and connecting studs, new terminals, a good crimp and I'd also solder after the crimp.

A few thoughts  

[Stu Jackson]

I agree with Ron.

Cliff, please read the Critical Upgrades topic.  Please.

One example

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5078.msg37179.html#msg37179

Have you done the harness/connector upgrade?  Also included in that Critcial upgrades topic.

We have a 1986 engine with 2,800+ hours.  Never had a starting problem after I followed that advice.

[Fuzzy]

I agree with Ron & Stu, I wouldn't replace the starter until I checked/re-did the cable connections.  I think it would
be unlikely that the strarter motor would slow down from a defect in the starter, more than likely it would be a
complete failure I think.
Larry

[Steve W10]

I'm with sailaway.

The cheapest options are always a great place to start.

My starter turned over like crap when I first got the boat.  Cleaning connections made no difference so I decided to do what I've done on old cars in the past, disassemble and clean the commutator in the starter.  Worked better for the first few turns but then pretty much back to what it was before.

Next, more as a test, I paired up a few existing wires for the run to the starter and that definitely helped, but wasn't the solution I wanted.

After installing a dedicated start battery a few feet from the starter things have been wonderful; I no longer fear my start button.

[crieders]

Harness upgrade done when I bought the boat
Batteries new this past year
Checked all connections on engine and at battery end
All look good. Did not yet load test the wiring.

[Stephen Butler]

Went through the same exercise on our 1023 some years back.  Checked everything and still not solution.  Then decided to "jump" the starter cable and worked great.  Old cable with a partial break inside.  Have since spoken with several marine mechanics and their experience says to really check the wiring as it is seldom the actual motor.  Hope this was of help.

[Clay Greene]

We replaced the 4AWG wire from the batteries to the switch and from the switch to the starter with 2AWG and that seemed to improve our starting performance.  That could have killed two birds with one stone - minimizing voltage drop from the batteries and replacing original wire and connections with new wire and connections.  I agree with the comments that replacing the starter would be the last thing I would do only when the cheaper and more logical steps failed to produce the desired improvement. 

[Lance Jones]

I just went through that. Check connections. If they're ok, upgrade to new wire/heavier gauge, go for dedicated starter battery. You'll notice a big difference with each step.