Outboard starter problem

I have spent soo much money on my 84, Johnson, 35hp. Today the starter motor doesn’t go up to engage the engine, just stays down and spins. any help before I go bankrupt?

Check your wiring to the battery. You might have the wires backwards so it’s spinning the wrong way.

Sometimes all it needs is some lubrication. Spray some jb 80 or other lubricant on the starter shaft you may need to try to manually lift the gear up. I have had this happen on several outboard over the years.

Mwal

Pike1401 wrote:

Check your wiring to the battery. You might have the wires backwards so it’s spinning the wrong way.

Similar thing happened to me. Except I forgot to hookup the ground to my battery. The starter would spin but not engage.

Same happens to mine now and then,usually after it sits for awhile.What I do is take a screwdriver and put a little pressure on one of the teeth of the gear when hitting the starter button.This pops it up and it usually works fine the rest of the day.But as said above check your battery and connections as a weak connection or battery can cause this issue as well.

matt wrote:

Same happens to mine now and then,usually after it sits for awhile.What I do is take a screwdriver and put a little pressure on one of the teeth of the gear when hitting the starter button.This pops it up and it usually works fine the rest of the day.

This describes exactly what I needed to do with an older Evinrude 25. You want the screwdriver underneath the gear a little bit and give it a little nudge upward and it should pop up. Same with mine, it would be fine for the rest of the day. Maybe spray very lightly some kind of penetrating oil. Not much though.

A little white lithium grease on the shaft might be the trick if your battery cables check out to be fine.

Thanks for all the help. I got it freed up and got it running. I think the cranking amps aren’t what it once was on the battery.