yamadog2020
New member
Hi everybody!
I am new to this forum but I have been fighting my 1989 Yamaha 9.9 ELF for about four years now. I told my wife I could probably find a good forum with hella-knowledge on Yamaha outboards and here you are! Every year it is something new but I love boating on our lake and frankly, we bought the pontoon from the home's previous owner, who bought it from the former previous owner. It's been on this lake since 1986 so I could never break the chain! I ran motocross back in the day and my bike of choice was a YZ250 (back when they were yellow), so I have been a Yamaha guy forever.
To my latest issue with "At Ease" (boat's name). I found the starter was not able to throw the bendix up into the flywheel at start up. It is an electric start with ancient controls. It is intermittent but it tends to fail after use and it is getting hot in Indiana. I will bet $100 that if I go down in the morning it fires up like a champ but if I use it for and hour or so, I will about promise it will not! So when it doesn't work, I can hear the starter buzz but the bendix doesn't lift into the flywheel. Since I am hearing the buzz I am wanting to eliminate the key switch but I could be wrong.
I pulled the starter and took it to a trusted mechanic that does only starters and alternators. Indy Starters and Alternators in Mooresville, IN (shameless plug, they deserve the rep).He bench tested everything. He put the armature on the lathe just to smooth it up but the starter checked out. So now I am going to put a multimeter on the + and - cables to check resistance and likely replace them. What am I missing? Where should my focus be next? Thanks in advance to everyone and maybe one day I can pay it forward!
Doug
I am new to this forum but I have been fighting my 1989 Yamaha 9.9 ELF for about four years now. I told my wife I could probably find a good forum with hella-knowledge on Yamaha outboards and here you are! Every year it is something new but I love boating on our lake and frankly, we bought the pontoon from the home's previous owner, who bought it from the former previous owner. It's been on this lake since 1986 so I could never break the chain! I ran motocross back in the day and my bike of choice was a YZ250 (back when they were yellow), so I have been a Yamaha guy forever.
To my latest issue with "At Ease" (boat's name). I found the starter was not able to throw the bendix up into the flywheel at start up. It is an electric start with ancient controls. It is intermittent but it tends to fail after use and it is getting hot in Indiana. I will bet $100 that if I go down in the morning it fires up like a champ but if I use it for and hour or so, I will about promise it will not! So when it doesn't work, I can hear the starter buzz but the bendix doesn't lift into the flywheel. Since I am hearing the buzz I am wanting to eliminate the key switch but I could be wrong.
I pulled the starter and took it to a trusted mechanic that does only starters and alternators. Indy Starters and Alternators in Mooresville, IN (shameless plug, they deserve the rep).He bench tested everything. He put the armature on the lathe just to smooth it up but the starter checked out. So now I am going to put a multimeter on the + and - cables to check resistance and likely replace them. What am I missing? Where should my focus be next? Thanks in advance to everyone and maybe one day I can pay it forward!
Doug