Starter problem

salmon slayer

Active Member
Last weekend I launched my boat at rocky point. It has an inboard 5.0 Volvo penta gas engine. When I turned the battery switch to the on position, the starter engaged and tried to start the engine with no key in the ignition. I turned the batteries off and it stopped. This has never happened before and the boat was used the weekend before.

I waited 10 minutes and then turned the batteries on again and all seemed fine. I put the key in the ignition,started the motor and off I went. I was cruising at about 25 knots and 20 minutes into the trip the started tried to engage the flywheel. I shut down immediately. The engine turned off, key was removed and the starter continued to try and engage.
I fired up the kicker and limped back to the dock and on the trip back took the wires off of the ignition switch to try and stop it from continuing. It failed and the solenoid overheated.

Yesterday I put a new starter in and when I turned on the batteries, the same thing happened.

I have no idea what to next.

I have a trip to Poett Nook scheduled and its 2 weeks away.

Any suggestions to point me in the direction to get this fixed would be greatly appreciated.
 
My first guess is it's the solenoid. It might be sticky. Or the ignition switch is sticky. You need to trouble shoot both the solenoid and the ignition switch. I had the exact same problem last year with my 302 Ford. I had a sticky solenoid that was my problem. My solenoid is attached to the back of the engine, not integral with starter.
I started typing a long winded response but realised the simple answer is to check Youtube videos.
One thing I will say is disconnect the heavy gauge wire that goes from the solenoid to the starter motor. This will stop the starter motor from engaging when you turn the battery switch on.
 
I know you said you put a new starter in. But if you have a separate solenoid, (one that is NOT attached to the starter) then you haven't eliminated the solenoid problem.
 
Thanks for your quick responses. New starter and solenoid were installed. I will check out the ignition switch
 
Yeah,, it's still has to be the solenoid or the ignition switch. It might be a faulty solenoid still. You need to trouble shoot both parts of the system,, the ignition switch and the solenoid again.

Good luck. There's tons of you tube videos on this. It's pretty straight forward.
 
kinda had the opposite problem a couple weeks ago. I couldn't get the boat to start but the starter would engage with no problem. after determining we had fuel to injectors we started to look for other things. what we discovered was that the engine kill button (momentary button) was somehow making contact internally, possibly through corrosion. once we unhooked 0ne wire from the kill switch the diesel fired up. would not have really suspected the kill button to go bad in that way but had to eliminate that as a possible source. I would think that it would also be possible for your ignition switch to possibly be behaving the same way. that or solenoid issues as previously suggested by other members.
 
I want to thank all that replied. After a bunch of hours, the ignition switch was eliminated, the starter relay was eliminated and we found that the issue was after the relay and the starter. After taking the starter back off and looking at the wires, it was an ironic perfect storm where the wires had rubbed and with vibration created a hot short that was easily fixed. Lesson learned to inspect everything before putting all back together
 
Good find! Just goes to show you, when you think it might be the obvious, it isn't. Nothing like chasing down electrical problems! Well done. Now onto the next repair!;) Boats you gotta love em!
 
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