HELP! Sport Jet Starter & Fly Wheel jammed!

[Twitchs_Tackle]

Friday, after running a couple miles up the C, we shut her down and fished for a little while. But when we went to fire it back up, the most god awful 'silverware in the garbage disposal' type sound came when I tapped the key to turn it over. My buddy and I looked at each other, then I quickly hit the key again... same thing. (these were super fast turns of the key, no long duration...)

Popped the cover off the motor, (my buddy had a guess at the problem as he had encountered it on a kicker once) and sure enough, the gear on top of the starter had jammed into the fly wheel and wedged. You could see fresh cuts, and missing tips off the teeth on the fly wheel.

My questions are:
1) Anyone else ever had this problem, where do I proceed next...

2) Was it a starter problem that caused the misalignment...

3) Was it a fluke bad couple teeth on the cheesy pot metal (probably made in china) fly wheel that gave, then caused the jam?

Motor in question is a 240 SJ, only 108.9 hrs on it.

Pics:





HalffastToyn, are you out there

[wsmahan]

Not sure but the starter looks to far away from the flywheel.
Does the starter fully engage the fly wheel?
Wes

[Twitchs_Tackle]

I was thinking the same thing as i took the pics, its a little decieving. here is another shot...

[fishkisser]

If the starter is kicking out fully to the correct height to properly engage the flywheel its probably just normal wear and tear ...
Replacing both gears should bring it back to working order ... otherwise ... new starter and ring gear time ...
Try a little lubrication on gears like corrosion block for the new installation ...

[Deandog]

Interesting....be sure to let us know what you find out.

[Twitchs_Tackle]

If the starter is kicking out fully to the correct height to properly engage the flywheel its probably just normal wear and tear ...

It appeared to be kicking up to full height, it just looked like a flywheel tooth tip sheared off, allowing the starter gear to advance a fraction farther forward than it should, thus head-butting the next in line flywheel tooth.

Normal wear and tear at 3 yrs old and 108 hrs? I would sure hope that flywheel/starter replacement isn't a standard 'wear and tear' replace fix at that interval.

Anyone know parts places? Is there a place that makes machined, or at least strong, quality fly wheels? I've tried googling sportjet flywheel and got nothing.

[Boat Doc']

I think you need to lube the starter drive and call it good.

[BrassMonkey]

quote=Boat Doc';1996624]I think you need to lube the starter drive and call it good.[/quote]
[
I had a 2002 175 Sportjet that did the same thing,lots of grease on the drive and the teeth!!

[1pump]

She does look a bit dry. At least the ring gear teeth are still mostly there, would would be good enough as long as the starter drive is working right.

[Twitchs_Tackle]

Lubed her up and gave it another shot...only resulted in more damage to the flywheel. The drive appeared to pop up to full height and mesh correctly, just didn't have the uumph to turn the flywheel. Made it about 3/4 of a turn slowly, then chipped a couple more tips off, and made the 'impact wrench putting on lug nuts' sound...

Wondering if when it initially stuck this past weekend, the guts were still trying to power through, and fried themselves... Guess its rebuild time...

[fishbenk]

Is the fly wheel itself jammed or stuck? Like if the jet had a rock in it and jammed things up?

[fishbenk]

Originally Posted by Twitchs_Tackle

Lubed her up and gave it another shot...only resulted in more damage to the flywheel. The drive appeared to pop up to full height and mesh correctly, just didn't have the uumph to turn the flywheel. Made it about 3/4 of a turn slowly, then chipped a couple more tips off, and made the 'impact wrench putting on lug nuts' sound...

Wondering if when it initially stuck this past weekend, the guts were still trying to power through, and fried themselves... Guess its rebuild time...

After I had a cone to the jet replaced once the cone was too tight to the jet prop and the starter could not turn the fly wheel. At first I thought it was a dead battery, so I charged it, then I thought the starter was shot so I took it all a part but no dice. So I pulled the spark plugs disconnected the battery and tried to turn the fly wheel by hand and found it was stuck then I look at the jet impeller and saw it was stuck to the cone. After adjusting the impeller a little things worked fine.

[Twitchs_Tackle]

Fly wheel not stuck... its got a decent amount of play. Like I said, it ran textbook perfect for a couple miles. Shut her down, fished, then when to start and...done-ski!

I was just out looking over some stuff. Doesn't look like the starter drive is coming up dead straight. Looks like the ring gear is only meshing with the tips of the flywheel teeth, not well down into them. The tips alone are not strong enough to handle the torque, and as they give, the gear wedges into the body of the flywheel teeth. May have a bent shaft, or can a bearing go, causing enough play that the ring gear can get pushed out away from the flywheel?

I think she's headed to the shop on Sat. a.m. Closest one is Clemens in Eugene, anyone have good feedback on them?

[Half fast Toyn]

The flywheel should have NO PLAY.... If the flywheel has play perhaps the bolts holding it onto the crank shaft are loose. Else, a bad main bearing. After seeing all the comments and observations, Im thinking its a starter problem....the bolts holding it on have came loose or that bendix got stuck up in the flywheel and road there for an extended amount of time. Thats the only way I can see that sort of damage and wear to the flywheel.

Im off this week and might do a crabbing run to Waldport. I can take a look-see and Ill give ya my opinion on the way back.

[Twitchs_Tackle]

[quote=play perhaps the bolts holding it onto the crank shaft are loose. Else, a bad main bearing. After seeing all the comments and observations, Im thinking its a starter problem....the bolts holding it on have came loose or that bendix got stuck up in the flywheel and road there for an extended amount of time. Thats the only way I can see that sort of damage and wear to the flywheel.

Im off this week and might do a crabbing run to Waldport. I can take a look-see and Ill give ya my opinion on the way back.[/quote]

[snohonative]

I have a 04 sport jet that I had some issues with the starter not driving straight up and fully engaging into the flywheel teeth. I removed the connections (the ground bolt was loose). I placed di-electric grease on the connections snugged them down and put a new coat of paint over the connections. I then gave the drive on the starter a good dose of WD40. I then replaced the flywheel and everything has been good since. The total cost was about $150. I bought the flywheel from boatfix.com. If you do the work yourself you won't need to re-time it, as the new flywheel will groove back to the same harmonic placing. I hope this helps.

[Boat Doc']

Try pulling the plugs and see if there is water in the cylinders

[weekender]

Sickening.

Did they say how it happened or what probably caused it?