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1993 Mercury Tracker 25hp Engine won't start

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climbsd3

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New to this Forum and just purchased a 17' bass tracker about 3 weeks ago....... Long Story short, Before the last trip on Saturday to San Diego bay my boat started and ran fine via the key start/electronic ignition. My 1993 Mercury Tracker 25hp was doing fine the whole trip until mid way through when the engine was cold I had to adjust the choke as usual and it took a series of 4-6 times of attempting to turned it on over the course of say 10 minutes before it kicked on. When I got home to start the motor to flush out the salt water it wouldn't turn on via the key for anything. So I used the pull start cable and it started after a few pulls and sounded good, flush it out for a bit and then shut it off and plugged the batteries in.

When I tried to start it up today via the key start, what looks like the small starter motor (has gears connected to the pull start gearing) it sounds very weak and is not able to crank the motor up. I looked at the SFE 20 fuse and it looks fine. Batteries test out fine. Any thoughts or ideas before I have to call a mechanic would be most helpful. I also have a short video of what the engine is doing when I turn the key if that helps at all. Thanks again!!!

Mike
 
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Is the cable or starter getting hot, Try a voltage drop test from battery positive post to battery post on starter with a dvm set on dc volts
 
climbsd3 did you do the voltage test with key in start position,sorry wasn't clear before, If starter is not cranking with key in start position and you have 12+volts at starter post issue with starter
 
johnnygjr said:
climbsd3 did you do the voltage test with key in start position,sorry wasn't clear before, If starter is not cranking with key in start position and you have 12+volts at starter post issue with starter
Click to expand...

Issue with the starter (as in Keyed Ignition starter? or starter motor/solenoid assembly?)

Took apart the starter and solenoid. Cleaned all the connections, found a melted and exposed wire going from the solenoid to a very small 1" x 1" motor near the starter motor. The brushes on the starter motor are barely in tact so I ordered a new starter as the one that is on there was dated 1993. The positive side of the solenoid post was corroded and busted off when I was loosening the nuts.

The new starter and solenoid don't arrive until Monday, I hope that I'm troubleshooting correctly and purchasing the right stuff... Haha
 
So, I cleaned and revamped the connections. Installed a new starter and a new solenoid, the engine started right up with no issues at all. Everything was fine and dandy.... the boat sat for 1.5 weeks before I took it out to the lake yesterday then nothing. When I turn the key I hear a single click from the outboard and it doesn't sound like the starter motor is working. Could it be that one of the new units already went bad or was faulty to begin with? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
The batteries are pigtailed to each other (2 total) one has the trolling motor only on it, the other has everything else ( starter, fish finders, bilge, aerator, etc.) Is it better to have the batteries separate or is connected to each other ok?
 
Are the batteries wired as 12 or 24 volt. If you are running the trolling motor alot that could be running the batteries down. That 25 hp is not capable of charging a dead battery.
 
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12v - Positive to positive. I'm running an hds 10 and 8 gen 1 on the starter battery as well as those other things I listed. Is it better to take off the connectors between the two batteries and run them separately?
 
Try using battery jumper cables to bypass ignition switch,neg.battery to engine block, positive battery post to + battery post on starter
 
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