1998 Speedster won't crank

[Luke42_02]

Just getting my 1998 Speedster cleaned up to take on the water. Engines have been started briefly in the driveway and each of the last 3 years, but it has not been in the water. Port engine fired right up after the usual cranking for a while. Battery was mostly dead but did have enough to fire up the Port engine. Starboard engine fires the starter but won't turn over. Its very similar to the response I get when I try to crank the engines and the battery is too dead to turn over. After I re-charged the battery I still get the same response. After many, many tries, I did get the Starboard engine to turn over and cranked it for about 5 seconds before I shut it off. When I tried to turn it over again, I only got the short burst (without turning over) from the starter that I had been getting previously.'

Any quick advice of what to pursue first? I'm thinking either a new starter or a new battery. Let me know if you think I'm barking up the wrong tree.

 

[Luke42_02]

Forgot to mention voltage measures 12.3V

 

[FlyboyX]

it kind of sounds like you have "the definition of insanity" going on over there. are you not doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result?

take the starter off and count how many teeth are on the pinion gear. if nine, it has likely been replaced with a cheap aftermarket starter. i have not personally had the experience, but people say the 8 tooth gear works much better.

while you have that starter off, take it apart and look at how much meat you have left on the brushes. if they are still good, use fine sandpaper to clean up the brush contact point on the armature. use a knife or some sharp object to clean between all of the segments. clean all the black soot out of the starter, regrease and install. hopefully, you will get a couple of more years out of it.

if none of that works, swap the starters between motors and see what happens

 

[racerxxx]

You can just look in at your starters, you can see them plain as day. If it's silver it's the original. If that battery is 3 years old and has been drained enough times I'd just get a new battery. See what happens. Then I'd pull the starter and clean up the shaft where the Bendix slides out to engage the flywheel. Clean the grounds on the cables with a wire brush. Clean the ear of the starter where the ground hooks up and let's go from there. Cleanliness is close to godliness.

 

[FlyboyX]

mine are buried under the tuned pipe. they were extremely difficult but not impossible to see and get to.

 

[racerxxx]

mine are buried under the tuned pipe. they were extremely difficult but not impossible to see and get to.

Gotcha, 98 speedster has 787's I can see my port starter plain as day. IIRC I can see the starboard to just a little more difficult. Or just use a mirror and you're good to go.

If it were a speedster SK that's the 720's and they're a little bit buried. But 98 only had the 787's, 99 the SK was 720 powered.

 

[Luke42_02]

Correct, 787’s. Will try the battery and report back!
I have heard bad things about the aftermarket starters. Does this include the ones from SBT?

 

[Luke42_02]

Oh man...

On the plus side, it’s the battery, when I finally got it fully charged tonight it let me crank the starboard engine for about 10 seconds before it no longer had enough charge to crank.

Afterwards, I pulled the battery only to find the positive lead wire was very hot to touch and at some point in the past had melted the positive terminal so that it now sat slightlycrooked on the battery. Obviously there must be a short somewhere huh?

 

[Luke42_02]

Yes, that is a washer literally melted into the led post on the battery

 

[Luke42_02]

I just kept thinking about this over and over and I couldn't understand why the starter would fire sometimes and not others. So, before replacing the starter, I pulled the plugs. Turns out it was way too much fogging oil last time I winterized. It cranked easily and pumped a bunch of oil out. Now it turns over easily with the plugs re-installed but I didn't fire it up because I don't want my neighbors to hate me. I'll let you guys know the final verdict tomorrow. I'm overjoyed that I won't be having to change the starter.

 

[racerxxx]

So, it's probably not fogging oil. It's probably 2 stroke oil. Your inner crank seals might be leaking.

 

[Luke42_02]

What makes you think so?

 

[Luke42_02]

Given that 2 stroke oil only flows into it when you crank or run the engine and given that it has hardly been cranked or run these past 3 years, I was thinking it was more likely to be fogging oil. I guess we’ll find out based on whether the problem returns.

 

[racerxxx]

So, if you follow the lines coming from your oil tank on the left side, you'll see tubing that goes to the rotary valve cavity. That is a gravity feed cavity, there is no flow in and out. The oil is seeping past the seals and into the crankcase. It may resolve itself after you start running it again. If not, some guys put a valve on it and keep their lanyard on it to remove them to turn the valve on. But, one step at a time.

 

[Luke42_02]

Thanks!

 

[Luke42_02]

Ugh, I really thought I would have it figured out once I got the starboard engine cranking but no such luck. The engines on my boat always have to be cranked for a long time coming out of storage usually 3 or so 10 second cranks on the starter. Since I have gotten the starboard engine cranking, I have gone through 7 10 second cranks on the starter without it firing. During this most recent crank, it stopped turning over once again. I assume because enough oil built up inside the combustion chamber again? Help much appreciated racerxxx

 

[racerxxx]

Pop the plugs out, soon that oil out. Take a little gas, like a cap full. Put it in the plug holes. Put plugs in and try and foyr it up

 

[Luke42_02]

Ok, I used the shop vac to suck out the combustion chambers. Didn’t seem to get much out. Put some gas in but didn’t fire right away. I did get one brief combustion before the battery was too dead to crank anymore. After charging, went through two more sessions of cranking until battery dead (which really is only about 2 x 10 second runs on the starter). Of course the port engine can crank much longer, but the starboard one seems to need the battery to be just about fully charged.

Anyway, after cranking enough times, it finally started, burned off a crap ton of oil, and now starts relatively easily.

I’m just a little worried that starboard pump will be even harder to crank with water in it and might be very tough to start on the lake, but I think as long as I start the port engine first things will be ok.

 

[hellz_wings]

Interesting thread. I replaced my existing cheapo aftermarket starter with an sbt starter, but that wasn’t the only issue. Starter kept coming loose, and making a jingling sound. Turns out that loop bracket facing the rear of the boat had snapped and therefore the starter was only bolted in by the flywheel mounting side. I got a used bracket from a local seadoo mechanic for 20$ and since then i have had no issues.