BoatBanter.com - Thanks to all... starter problem solved

YukonBound wrote:

"Larry" wrote in message
...
YukonBound wrote:

"W1TEF" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 8 Jul 2010 09:59:27 -0300, "YukonBound"
wrote:

Thanks to some dogged investigating, I've solved my starter
problem and all
works well.
I won't bore you with the details........ but after 'the fix' was
made, the
starter jumped up and threw that flywheel around like a champ.

So what was it?

Ok.. since you asked...
This solution was in the back of my mind from the start, but I
didn't want to try anything for fear of causing problems.
I was able to turn the bendix toothed gear by hand and one way it
would raise up on a helix to the flywheel so I felt nothing was
seized there.
When I pressed the starter I noticed that the bexdix was spinning
clockwise... same way as the flywheel did when I pulled on the cord.
This didn't seem right so I took a closer look at how the Minn Kota
prop spun when I put in in forward & reverse.
You guessed it...the opposite way from what you would expect.
I had assumed that the cables leading to the battery posts were like
your normal 14-2 household wiring.
That is..... black hot & white neutral. It was the opposite.... the
white wire belonged on the + post and black on the - post.
I couldn't remember how it was connected when I re-installed the
battery ....and with a 50% chance of getting it right...i didn't.
I'll mark or apply red tape to that white wire so I don't make that
mistake again.

Big deal. People make stupid mistakes all the time. I am surprised
your positive lead was white and not red. That would have avoided
the whole problem. Hopefully it didn't do any damage to the starter
- Tim can answer that.

If you suspected that might be the problem, a voltage tester would
have answered that question in less than a minute. You should get
one if you don't have one. They are very cheap to buy and you can
use it for other things.

I have a reasonable quality digital multi-meter that I use on occasion.
So you forgot you had it?