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Starter turning backwards

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kjdavi76

Member
Hey everyone. I have a problem with my starter turning the flywheel the wrong direction and when the motor tries to start it kicks back the other direction and is breaking the teeth on the starter. I can see the flywheel cjange directions when it does start every once in a while. Ive never seen anything like this. I have checked polarity of all the cables that go to the starter even checked the battery upon seeing a post about someone havinh one that had been charged backwards or something. This is 60hp mercury serial number A924913 no model number on the motor.
 
This is a 3 cylinder motor. I changed the coils, wires, and spark plugs, cdi box, rectifier, and starter solenoid all the wires were falling apart on everything.
 
kjdavi76 said:
Hey everyone. I have a problem with my starter turning the flywheel the wrong direction and when the motor tries to start it kicks back the other direction and is breaking the teeth on the starter. I can see the flywheel cjange directions when it does start every once in a while. Ive never seen anything like this. I have checked polarity of all the cables that go to the starter even checked the battery upon seeing a post about someone havinh one that had been charged backwards or something. This is 60hp mercury serial number A924913 no model number on the motor.
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Are you sure that the starter is actually spinning backwards?

The issue may be that the starter is spinning correct and when the engine fires it actually kicks back and runs backwards.

If you are not sure, start the engine and put it in fwd gear, which way is the prop turning?

I have only seen this happen on a Johnson Outboard. It was a bad timer base on the Johnson.
 
One other possibility: The old Merc triple had TWO different firing orders: 1-2-3 (originally) replaced as the years went on by 1-3-2.

I can tell you from personal (embarrassing) experience that the two can be mixed up. If so, the motor will attempt to start but mess up in various, ugly ways (which might include trying to run assbackards).

You can tell which crankshaft you have by sticking a Phillips screw driver in each plug hole and seeing where (on the flywheel--mark it) each piston comes to TDC.

What can cause all kinds of confusion here is that BOTH wiring diagrams are out there, but if you don't know which beast you have (a 1-2-3 or a 1-3-2) it's very easy to wire the thing wrong. (Ah-hem!)

Jeff
 
Sorry I have took so long to reply. The firing order was incorrect. I had it 1-2-3 and it was supposed to be 1-3-2. Motor starts and runs great now. Thanks everyone.
 
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