Battery or starter

[midnight1957]

This week I went to the lake to bring my pontoon home for the winter. I had connected a small trickle charger to my battery 2 days earlier. When I started to crank my 40 hp Mercury only the starter would turn but the drive would not engage into the flywheel. This starter is like a Ford starter, it doesn't have a solonoid on the starter, so does the speed of the starter cause the drive to engage? I kept trying even putting another charger with a boost to try to get it started, I even connected my deep cycle battery to the cranking battery with jumper cables. Finally I got it started but really don't know what I did that made it finally start.
Could it have been that the batteries are a little low and that was the problem or could I have another problem maybe the solonoid, it must have one somewhere.
This is the last thing that I want to happen next year when I start to use my boat.
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Wade

[badmoonrising]

How old is your boat ? The starter has to turn pretty fast for the bendix gear to engage. If you have a "known good" battery, I'd check for a full 12 volts at the starter. It's common for battery cables to corrode internally, thus reducing voltage to the starter.

Also make sure the battery connections are clean. They can look great on the outside, but a little corrosion can reduce voltage enough to reduce voltage to the starter.

[Bamaman]

I'm like all the ghetto people. I'm never without a set of jumper cables.

That reminds me to get the battery out of my car trunk and put it back in my zero turn mower.

Put a boost on your boat and see if it'll start. If not, drop the starter and take it to an auto electric shop. They can often fix virtually any starter or alternator without having to buy a new overpriced Mercury part.

[midnight1957]

My pontoon is a 1996 model, I have never had this problem before. I will check everything you mentioned and if everything checks out I will take it to a starter shop.

Thanks guys,
Wade

[HandymanHerb]

Grease the spur gear, mine got dry on me,when I ran one tank out and switched tanks, it wouldn't start, but my brother and Uncle said they heard it spinning, I took the top off and could see the spur gear stuck to the bottom of the shaft, took some WD-40 for a quick fix and greased it when I got home.