drop the lower unit and see if it then turns.

"sysadmin" wrote in message
...
I have a Mercury 6 cylinder outboard that's pretty old (1976 I think).
It's been fairly reliable, even though it's owner is not so reliable on
maintenance. Every year, it gets tougher to start and this year, it won't
turn over. I opened the cowl and I can hear clicking from the battery and
a small gear next to a large gear (flywheel?) on top engage and try to turn
the larger gear.

I tried to manually start the engine by using the pull string, but the
large gear won't budge at all. I have the repair manual for this thing
but this part isn't in there. I'm assuming my problem is that the
"flywheel is stuck". If this sounds right, can somebody offer a solution?

Thanks!