I have a 2001 60hp bigfoot and I hear ya! It's kinda hit or miss for parts, but this site (I just discovered it today) has a pretty cool shop-by-diagram feature that may be helpful. https://www.marineengine.com/parts/mercury-outboard-parts/60-bigfoot-3-cyl. It's really for individual parts, not...
I honestly am not too sure where I determined that. But you bring up a good point about starters. One unlikely cause that fits the bill perfectly is that I got two bad-ish starters. I have been considering this and perhaps, like you say, I need to try a true mercury starter 🤷♂️
I have a 2001 60hp Mercury bigfoot 2-stroke that starts easily on land but struggles to crank when put in the water on the ramp. If it decides to start and we get on the water, subsequent starts are usually ok though it can still struggle a bit at times.
When this first started, I took the...