Starter motor making strange noise

[Barney Strumble]

Morning all,
I put the muffs on my Evinrude outboard yesterday and started first time with no trouble, so after ticking over for 5 min I turned the engine off, and then tried restarting, but the starter motor wouldn't start the engine, almost like it wasn't gripping the flywheel and just spinning out with a strange noise.
I've been hearing this strange noise from my starter motor last couple of times out, Its when I go to start the engine, it seems to start turning the flywheel for less than 1 second, and then makes this hard to describe noise, at best I would say like dry coughing squeeling/screeching type noise, and it will not turn the engine over whilst making this terrible noise, the bendix has been greesed a few months back when serviced. Any advice on diy repair if possible would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[cryan]

It could be a fault with the starter solenoid not holding the bendix in fully?

 

[Barney Strumble]

So hopefully don't need to replace the whole unit then, that would be good, would there be any visual way of telling if its the solenoid, or would it need stripping down for examination,
Many thanks.

 

[cryan]

If the solenoid is not holding in the bendix they can sometimes make a sort of machine gun/chattering sound. Best to get an electrician to test it. You might find the solenoid is an integral part of the motor

 

[Barney Strumble]

I've heard similar to the noise you describe usually when my batterys low on power, but this new annoying noise seems more screechy.
Thanks again for your advice.

 

[Momac]

the bendix has been greesed a few months back when serviced.

It sounds like the problem has ocurred since the bendix was greased. I may be wrong but I think you shouldn't grease the bendix as it may slow down the movement of the bendix on the shaft ?
.

 

[Barney Strumble]

I'll take a closer look this weekend.
Cheers all.

 

[gordmac]

Not convinced greasing a bendix is a good idea. Are the starter bolts tight? I would take it off, clean and test it on the bench and go from there.

 

[pampas]

dirt sticks to the grease so take to a auto lecky shop and let them sort it out and dont lubricate in future.

 

[Barney Strumble]

Probably best I get it looked at, the last full engine service was about three months ago, with a mobile Evinrude approved mech, I mentioned the greasing as I'm sure I seen him put a small amount on the shaft the bendix runs on, nothing much I'm sure, I've been hiring his service for over 20 years and he's very good at his job, trouble is he's working away on marine contract atm, and I was hoping this was a job I could do myself, I was hoping from my strange noise description, that there would be a common problem to cause this noise, I'll definatly check those connectors first, just to make sure there tight, and maybe swop the battery, not really checked the price of a new starter yet, but hopfully won't need to go down that route.
Thanks again all.