www.iFourWinns.com

Fortunately, the family and I are just 5 minutes from the local lake. We took the boat down late this afternoon for a quick 2 hour knee boarding session. Getting ready to head back, and the starter is just spinning freely, not turning the engine over. Its a 5.7 VP gsi by the way. Im assuming its the starter, and thats what needs to get money thrown at it, but just wanted to get everyone elses opinions on it before I get this work done.

Any other insight is greatly appreciated!!

On a side note, we tried flagging several people down, by waving the arms and blowing the horn. The first few, just looked and cruised on their merry way, as if they didnt understand. The family that did stop, was absolutely wonderful and fully understood the "pay it forward" concept. 4 adults in their boat, along with 4 kids wanting to have some fun, and they stopped for us and offered help!! Pulled us back to the boat launch, and helped us get to the dock. I offered them money, and they refused. We exchanged information, and I asked them to call us, next time they were coming into the area, ( drove 3 hours to our little lake), and we would be honored to buy them lunch. Good people!!! In fact, his wife said she was riding her mountain bike on a trail last week, when she got a flat tire. She had no tools or tubes. Someone riding by stopped to help her. She said he changed the tire for her right there on the trail, and refused any payment. She told us, this was her paying it forward to us.

Gary

Nice to hear there are still some good people out there. Keep us posted what the issue was.

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2001 Horizon 260 - 7.4 Volvo GSI DP

With luck it's just the solenoid on the starter. Starters work first by energizing the solenoid and that presses the gears against the flywheel, the the starter motor spins. You might try the old trick of tapping the solenoid housing lightly with a hammer. Sometimes they stick. But if the solenoid is OK then there's the worse possibility of gear teeth being missing off the engine flywheel. The solenoid kicks the gear into place but it doesn't meet up with any teeth on the flywheel. That gets pricey to fix as the engine usually has to be pulled.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Yep, sounds like the solenoid to me.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

I had the same thing happen with my starter last summer ('99 5.7L Gsi). I opted to just replace the starter given the cost. I think it was around $140 for the starter and it's only 2 bolts and 2 wires (ha ha) and took about 2 hours essentially working blind reaching under the engine.

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'99 234 Candia Funship, 5.7Gsi SX

Gary
You either have a bad bendix (the mechanism that engages the flywheel),a stripped flywheel or stripped gears on the stator. No matter what you need to remove the starter and examine it. You may just have a broken roll pin on the bendix or ? If a new one can be found cheap (and the flywheel is OK) then just replace it. I just had mine rebuilt here in Cananda and it cost me $322 for a complete rebuild of the motor end with all new parts... get it out and it may be obvious right off the bat what is wrong.
Good Luck and keep us posted if you need any more advice.

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Marc, Kathlin & Nathalie


'89 Chaparral Laser 32

'93 Vista 245, 5.8L w/ King Cobra

Former Boats
'01 H260, 7.4 VP Duoprop
'98 H200, 5.0 GL w/VP SX drive

And if you decide to pull the starter MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE you remove the wires from the battery FIRST. The starter pulls a tremendous amount of power. If you don't disconnect the battery (or batteries) first you run the chance of causing an arc. I've seen horrific pictures from people that have gotten tremendously bad burns to their hands when a tool caused an arc across the live lines. This is another reason to remove all jewelry when doing work. An arc through a watch or ring makes an even worse injury.

It's a relatively straightforward job, just made harder due to the cramped quarters.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Very good point on the need to disconnect the batteries (or at least shut off the battery switch if you have one). Keep in mind that the entire engine block and just about everything bolted to it is grounded so if you take off the positive cable from the starter solenoid and it touches any part of the engine you will have a dead short to ground if both your positive and negative cables are still hooked up to the battery. And the danger comes from the amps a battery is capable of delivering, many marine batteries have in excess of 700 amps which can create a huge amount of heat that can cause burns if you are wearing a watch or a ring and it gets between the positive cable and any ground path. That plus you don't want to make sparks in the bilge of an inboard anyway.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Thanks for all the replies!! Looks to be a simple fix. I wish I was a little more flexible to get into the engine compartment.

By the way, the boater that helped us yesterday, was in a 2001 four winns 200 horizon!

Thanks again,
Gary

I asked this question in the engine section, but that seems to be slow section. Has anyone had any issues with the MES aftermarket starters, vs an oem merc or vp???

Thanks,
Gary

I replaced mine with a Sierra aftermarket starter a little over a year ago and it's been fine (so far). I think it was around $160. Don't know about the MES starters.

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'99 234 Candia Funship, 5.7Gsi SX

I put in an MES about 3 years ago and it's been fine...

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II