Is this a bad flywheel or starter? Johnson 110

[leaky]

Thanks for that again guys! Unfortunately when I got to trying to work on it today the rain became so ridiculous I had to quit else risk causing another problem by soaking the powerhead. Will get back and let you know what I found here.

That is really good info that the sierra starter worked. I could look it up but wherever I bought it from was some Ebay place, was awhile ago, and my recollection is it was like $60 - probably was trying to be cheap about it and got burnt as a result.

Jon

[Dave Strong]

Thanks for that again guys! Unfortunately when I got to trying to work on it today the rain became so ridiculous I had to quit else risk causing another problem by soaking the powerhead. Will get back and let you know what I found here.

That is really good info that the sierra starter worked. I could look it up but wherever I bought it from was some Ebay place, was awhile ago, and my recollection is it was like $60 - probably was trying to be cheap about it and got burnt as a result.

Jon

They will tell you it fits All, OMC not so much.

Dave

[skeeter91]

its my belief that the aftermarket starters are the culprit here. i went through two starters before just milling the tabs to gain the engagement needed too make it work.the engine this went on came to me in pieces with no original starter for a rebuild. i heard from the owner yesterday and its running strong with no issues!

[71V153]

Bendix gear looks awful rounded off. Due to the loose bolt(s) perhaps? Seen worse flywheels.

[71V153]

Fwiw shop across the street from me specializes in rebuilding that kind of stuff.

For $60 bucks he replaced the brushes, bendix, and painted one of mine.

[leaky]

Ok so had some time daylight and weather today to get back to it - here's the update and it's a little unexpected but I think I have a theory. Below picture is the original starter bolted on there tight. It has a part # on it, 389954, which seems to be the old original part # (ie was not aftermarket), and similarly doesn't seem to fit right ..

I didn't measure but the old one seems closer, maybe such that it might be less likely to slip, but still too far out.

Here's something I remember faintly. When I took that original starter off I found a couple washers which seemed to be used behind the original starter - which would shim it out actually; when I put the new one on I discarded them as obviously they were not needed. I'm fairly sure now that those washers were placed on the lower mounting bolt when I had originally got the engine - ie to put just a little angle on the starter to put the gear closer to the flywheel.

Today when playing around with starter mounting I noticed that if I ignored the bottom bolt (there are 3, one on the front of the block, two on the side) the starter actually seated squarely on the two other mounts such that the lower holes (on the starter and block) no longer quite lined up right and had a little space between them.

Sooo my theory is this - someone "fixed" this by adding a shim that tilts the starter just a bit toward the flywheel and it was working OK before.. It could actually be a problem on the block itself, the stand offs being just a bit wrong - which begs the question what to modify so it fits right - shim to put the gear closer to the flywheel, or remove material from the starter mounting flange - hard to say what really would put the gear and flywheel more square because I got an OMC starter & OMC block here, along with another starter that is an OMC replica, which obviously do not mate right together

Jon

[leaky]

original starter

[leaky]

Picture of the original and aftermarket starter next to eachother, showing the pair of mounting holes I'm talking about. I believe initially when this engine came to me, it had 2 washers under the lower bolt hole.