Starter issues

[blaxness]

Find my starter will not send gear up to fly wheel on my 25hp Johnson J25SEER. I've checked electrical connections, battery state of charge, cleaned gear housing and still get nice activation but doesn't rise to engage. Any ideas?

[Solarman]

I've had similar problem with several of my starters, it would spin but not engage flywheel. What I've found is the pinion gear that spins up to engage flywheel is stuck on the shaft, not free to slide up (mine was caused by humidity, which caused the shaft to start rusting to my pinion gear). The pinion gear has a clutch as-sy (see clutch as-sy discussed below) at the bottom that pushes the pinion gear upwards by centrifugal force when the starter first spins. On my motors, my clutch worked fine, but because my pinion gear, and shaft had started to rust together, it didn't slide on the starter shaft. I removed my starter, and used a pair of vise-grips to hold the pinion gear. Then used a puller on the vise-grips while pushing down on the shaft until the pinion & clutch as-sy started sliding up, once it was up I was able to lube the shaft under the clutch as-sy. Once lubed, I tapped on pinion gear with piece of wood, until back down. then by holding the pinion gear again, I could turn the starter by hand and the pinion gear would slide up. The clutch as-sy will only lock the clutch gear in the opposite direction the starter turns. If you turn the pinion gear the same direction the starter shaft turns, when you turn the key to start, it will not move upwards.

Your clutch as-sy has a gear inside that rides a gear on the starter shaft. The clutch locks on to that gear by centrifugal force when the starter is first engaged. If your clutch as,sy is bad (not locking the clutch gear inside clutch), then the pinion and clutch as-sy will have to be replaced. So if your pinion gear spins freely in both directions, your clutch is probably bad (the pinion and clutch can be replaced, if you can find one identical to yours.). If you can't find a match, you may have to buy a complete starter.

Hope this helps you understand your starter. Good luck. Post back when able if questions.

[blaxness]

Starter

Thanks, i have a starting place now. The starter is 21 years old, probably due for a replacement in any case.

[Solarman]

If you have a starter/ alternator repair shop in your area, they could tell you if it is a problem with voltage, or starter problem, or pinion gear problem. Would prevent you just throwing money at it, and you would know for a fact what the problem actually was?

Just thoughts. Good luck.