Starter problem

my brother went to shut off the boat one day and turned the key the wrong way and it grinded the starter so it sounded and it worked to start it like 150 times but just last night i was out riding and it started sounding realy bad when starting it and now it just makes this high pich winding sound and it wont even turn over. what do you think the problem is and what should i do before pulling the starter out?
thanks

sounds like some gear teeth are sheared off either the starter or worse the flywheel

Your brother did not cause this in any way. It could also be the Bendix is not kicking out and engaging the teeth.

If it is not the Bendix, definetly pull the starter and inspect the all the flywheel teeth by turning the motor over by hand. You could also try to turn the motor over some by hand then try cranking it over again. If it starts then, the flywheel is most likely toast.

All right, everyone fess up: Haven't we all done that more than once?

It is certainly possible that the starter and/or flywheel gear teeth got messed up and that over time they just got worse. I would not jump to that conclusion yet, however.

The high pitch whining sound you hear is the starter turning over without first engaging the flywheel.

There are two common mechanisms that are used to engage the starter teeth into the flywheel: Solenoid or bendix.

Starters that have a solenoid have an extral cylinder appendage to them. This cylinder is usually about 2" in diameter and maybe 4 inches long. The battery wire attaches to the solenoid. Its job is to thrust the starter teeth into the flywheel. If it fails then the teeth will not engage.

The other style uses friction or an off balace weight on the bendix to engage the starter. It is possible for this mechanism to jam and cause the problem.

Either way you need to pull the starter out and inspect. If the gear teeth on the starter look really bad then you are going to need to inspect the flywheel, which may be really hard to do but perhaps you could come up with a small video camera that you could work into the spot the starter just came out of. If the flywheel teeth look okay then buy a new starter and go boating. If the flywheel teeth are all messed up then the engine needs to come out.

If the starter teeth look okay then I would just replace the starter and not mess with it. If you are really strapped for cash, and you have the solenoid style starter then you could try replacing the solenoid first. If that fixes it you are off a little cheaper. IF that doesn't fix it then you are out the additional cost of the solenoid plus the time you spent messing with it.

we just replaced our starter because it was zinging and it did the trick. we also had grinded it before but it was the starter. new starter sounds hella sweet too. it is also a bitch to get out but ya know

Could be that one of the bolts holding the starter up has come loose and it's not engaging the flywheel. I had that one happen... sigh. Ended up being that the long bolt had broken clean off in the mounting block.