thought i needed a starter but did this instead

[brock1]

so 2 weeks ago i flipped over my ski after jumping a huge wave and it got like 5 inches of water in the hull so i drained the water out and went to start and nothin!!! Just clicking from the solenoid so i assumed i had shorted out my starter because upon getting it home i could get it to start only by tapping it with a hammer. So i thought about buying a new one from minnekota but thought first i should take it apart and see whats up. so after an hour of work i got it off and apart and too my surprise there was only a tiny bit of water in the starter so i blew it out with a compressor and used steel wool on the brushes and threw it back together " by the way dont evr try to take a starter apart alone without the proper tools its darn near impossible to get it back together without breaking something ""!!!!! So after i get it back together i throw it on and it has never worked better i went out all day yesterday and not a problem .... just thought id let everyone know that iot pays to investigate on your own first it could save you big bucks in the end !!!!
PS tyhanks to everyone that offered me parts during this i will buy from you again i promise.. I do need the left side sponson for my 97 gsx its the purple sponson if you got one pm me with a price

 

[Seadoobuddy]

OK, I'm new. What special tools do you need for a starter?
My nephews quit a couple months ago. A friend took it apart and said it was toast. I put a new one on that i bought from DB electrical.

 

[brock1]

do you mean what ones do you need to take the actual starter apart or to install a new one... If your asking about disassembling a starter then you need lots of small deep wells and something to compress the brushes when you go to reinstall everything.... getting it apart is easy is putting it back together that sucks but i believe they make a tool to compress the brushes while you put the rear cap back on...... i used fishing line to tie them in place since they are spring loaded and luckily the line did break off when i pulled on it !!!

 

[LouDoo]

Just a little tip here guys. NEVER use steel wool to clean a starter, the steel particles are drawn to the magnetic parts on the starter, and will short out the starter and can even cause a fire. Use emery paper or even sand paper.

Lou

 

[brock1]

yeah i found that out too the hard way it took me forever to get the steel wool off the magnents good to know now that was the first time that i have ever tried to fix a starter normally i just buy a new one but a new one was 400 bucks