How to Fix an ENGINE STARTER (with Friends) [Capable Cruising Guides]
Вставка
- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- How many sailors does it take to fix an engine starter? Today, we find out when Clark (a retired computer programmer) visits Steve (a master diver) along with Conrad (a former blacksmith). Combining their brains, brawn, and their collection of tools, they try to get Steve's engine going again, and share some stories and advice along the way.
We live aboard our antique sailboat, Temptress, where we (Emily and Clark) fix almost everything ourselves. Check out our other "Capable Cruising Guide" videos and subscribe for more content like this.
WHAT’S IN THIS VIDEO:
• Introduction [00:50]
• Steve's Favorite Part of Cruising [02:45]
• Removal [04:20]
• What is a Starter [07:22]
• Disassembly [09:12]
• The Frustrating Thing About Boat Projects [10:18]
• Parts of a Starter [13:57]
• The Problem [15:49]
• What's the Difference? Lubes, Solvents & Protectants [24:57]
History of WD-40 [26:18]
• Reassembly [28:34]
• Conrad's view on waxes [36:03]
• Testing [39:58]
LINKS TO STUFF IN THIS VIDEO:
WD-40 with Flexible Straw (so much eaiser!): amzn.to/3lkJusO
Boeshield: amzn.to/2JU9CNf
Conrad's multi-tool: amzn.to/3lMbR2H
Yanmar engine starter: amzn.to/3ote9W9
OTHER VIDEOS:
Watch Clark fix a 2-stroke: • Fixing a 2-STROKE OUTB...
Watch Clark fix a 4-stroke: • Fixing a 4-STROKE OUTB...
Watch Clark’s diesel engine hacks: • Boat DIESEL ENGINE Hac...
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE and CLICK THE BELL to see new videos every week, and get more knowledge and advice from Clark.
----
SUPPORT OUR VIDEOS and BUY EMILY A BEER!
Patreon: / emilyandclark
PayPal: www.paypal.me/...
Buy S/V Temptress shirts and swag: teespring.com/...
CONNECT WITH EMILY & CLARK
Facebook: / emilyandclark
Instagram: / emilyandclark
---
#capablecruising #boatprojects #emilyandclark
![LIGHTNING Hits Boats. Here's How to Deal With It [Capable Cruising Guides]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PurMG7KHdW4/mqdefault.jpg)
![LIGHTNING Hits Boats. Here's How to Deal With It [Capable Cruising Guides]](/img/tr.png)
![Boat DIESEL ENGINE Hacks & Oil Change [Capable Cruising]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Sf02o0VyTwA/mqdefault.jpg)
![How to Build the Best VHF RADIO [Capable Cruising Guides]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ALuKTUG6bHo/mqdefault.jpg)
love the shout out to AVE that guy is a treasure trove of knowledge.
You may not wish to use sand paper on your commutator. It will embed the hardened particles in the bars and mica causing your brushes wear quickly and unevenly. This will cause failure in a much reduced time. I understand who really cares if it gets you going in the middle of nowhere. But if you a rebuilding a starter to put away as a restored part .
Starter motors are built to last almost forever and can be rebuilt as good as new dozens of times. As for the plastic ring gear, It is a designed failure point.Designed to fail to prevent much more extensive damage to your engine, Electrical system , and the starter its self.
Love your show, Keep up the great work.
I was shouting at the PC! Clark... you forgot the Seal!!!! LOL! Great job! Very informative and extremely educational! Thank you...
Please shout louder into your time machine next time. I need the help!
Me too
So was I!!!! And saw It laying there!!
I was taking apart my starter while watching this video. When I got it reassembled, both the solenoid and the starter began working beautifully. Thanks guys !
I own a Camper Nicholson 35 with a Perkins 4-108.
Temptress had a 4-108 before I put the yanmar in her. Good engine for that size boat.
If you need parts and are in Florida I have the old engine parts in my shed
Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying that WD-40 is not lubricant!! It's good stuff for what it was designed for, displacing water and corrosion prevention. Again thank you for teaching me how to rebuild a starter. Keep the good stuff coming.
I heard it's also a bird repellent - I had a coworker who was awakened obnoxiously early by pigeons outside his hotel window during an extended stay and after spraying WD-40 on the outside window sill, the pigeons never returned.
Conrad is a quiet achiever. I’ll bet he could pull that whole motor apart as rebuild it. But he would never say. However hats off to you all good job.
Nice video... You are a natural teacher it seems.
I really appreciate your approach of walking through each strep and taking the time to explain how the starter works and what each part is supposed to do. You go a long way to demystifying problem solving and implementing a fix. I learned A LOT. Thank you. Wishing you fair winds.
Great Video. Thanks for coming by
Just watched up to 9:13 and had to say how perfect your explanation of the workings of a starter motor was, could not have been better and looked like it wasnt rehearsed, well done!!
Thanks. Yes, I'm too lazy to rehearse anything.
Great detail on how to trouble shoot and break down a starter. The sailing community seems like one big family. Always there to help one another. I would assume in an anchorage like you are in there should be enough people that someone would be able to help. Great job.
Yes we help one another. Steve is the guy that took PADI diving world wide. He cleans my and Conrad's dinghy bottom every couple of weeks. He seems happier underwater.
This video is awesome. Thanks you! I'm ready to fix the starter next time I have an issue with it
Spent the 85 dollars on the manual crank for my Volvo Penta 28HP. First year we had the boat back in 1995, out in the Great salt pond of Block Island, Hurricane coming up the coast and they said would be where we are in two days, so we had anchor and only had the original two 23 batteries which in the morning were dead. Tried to group the but the fame Tic, Tic,
So got the handle out and hand cranked her to life. Works, but after that got a separate starter battery, never want to do that again. However still the best 85 dollars knowing if you are struck by lightning, I can manually do it. Too bad the do not make that for the Yanmar..
I think you and I would get along great! Hope to meet you out there some day.
That’s good work there
Great clear explanation. I'm familiar with starters but the toothpick trick was new. I've been using dental floss to hold brushes in, it's a bit awkward, I'll have to check on the next small motor whether there are toothpick holes. I guess if there aren't I could just drill some(so many things are designed to be "unserviceable" these days). Cheers.
We have absorbed a lot of education from your videos. This one was fantastic! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
You're very welcome
Wow. These how to videos are great. Thank you. This looks like a Luperon Club House. 😁 Thank you so much for sharing all this experience.
My 1967 Mustang 289 V-8 Acapulco Blue convertible would not start. Starter was replaced, and it started the engine, but after awhile it did not start the engine. Replaced the starter, same problem after awhile - engine would not crank. One night out of frustration I decided to push the car in drive a foot or so, then the starter would start the engine. The problem was a missing tooth on the flywheel. Whenever the starter landed in the space once occupied by the flywheel tooth, the starter would not move the flywheel. Once the flywheel was replaced, good to go - hair blowing in the wind once again. :¬) Webhead USA
Good starter rebuild video. I’ve read a lot of comments over the years and there’s always someone who knows better than you do. Just take them with a grain of salt. I need to pick up some of the wax you used there. I can certainly see where it could come in handy. I think the small Luperon community is so interesting. Bums introduced me to you, and I don’t remember who introduced me to Barefoot Sail and Dive, but I just met Steve through their video from today. Keep up the good work. As I’ve said before, I always enjoy your videos, and I always learn something new. Thank you.
You're welcome Bob
You guys are great. Sailors community is fantastic. Thanks for the video.
You're welcome Mike. Thanks for watching
Very informative - I learned a lot
wonderful video, great explanation. Thank you!
If you choose to stay around and subscribe I suggest you look at our capable cruiser playlist. Lots like that there.
Awesome level of detail, it is super appreciated
Great take apart video. Thanks, this is the second restore to life starter video from cruisers that looks really informative. But it looks like that engine has not been getting the TLC it needs. Did it finally get to run after other fixits. Years ago I had a fairly new yanmar 2GM, VERY simple engine, wouldn't start, wouldn't start no matter what I tried - starter, flywheel, compression check, injector spray pattern, battery, hand cranking. I was too embarrassed to ask anyone to help figure it out. So I would just sail my 33 ft boat off the mooring and back into the mooring every weekend in the anchorage and getting the stink eye from a couple of nearby boat owners afraid I would run their stern. What happened is I really learned how to control the boat in small quarters and flukey winds, I forgot about the motor for awhile. Then a friend asked if my motor was working, I made some dumb comment about changing a part and while down below he looked at the motor and ask if the bolts holding the injectors were supposed to turn freely - the aha moment for me was that the injector bolts vibrated loose. I never bolted to spec and kept vibrating loose so no compression. I torqued the bolts to yanmar spec and motors problems were over. I still preferred sailing in and out of the mooring basin. By the way, if I Were to ever invite you to look at an engine, I would provide the Snap-Ons , brake cleaner, goob hand cleaner and anything else on the job.
Very helpful im about to do my starter now
Best of luck on your project.
Great teamwork you all,glad you could post the video !Even without the engine running it would very educational !
Thanks Martin
Aye m8’s, remembering my old Chevrolet Suburban 1975 (350) was eating starter bearings for breakfast. Didn't matter how serious you where with the shimming - they eat bearings! I had pulling apart some numbers of starters and this looks like a really tiny and cute one. Thnx for the vid!
I remember when that was a thing. Just bad engineering. 70s weren't the best example of US automotive design
Dude! If I had a nickel for every time I've had to take something back apart because I realized I forgot something, I'd be shopping for a brand new boat! 😂
Great video...with anticlimactic ending.... sequel?
The engine is now running.
Steve got really sick and had to endure several surgeries so we weren't able to film the whole project.
great communicator
great steady hands on the camera
Thanks Wayne. We just used some patreon money to buy a stabilized camera. Makes these kind of shots much better. -C
Thanks for the awesome video!! Gonna buy some spares on my way out of the yard this year :)
We just put a new link to a reasonably priced starter up. Check it but it should work on new jh series yanmars.
Pencil erasers also work for cleaning contacts..
I would first jump the solenoid terminals ( eg with a short length of battery cable between the two large terminals) to eliminate it as the problem before I took the starter off. Then if the solenoid was not working, check for voltage drop. Yanmar starter solenoids are very sensitive to voltage drop, usually caused by corrosion on the wiring or connections between the key switch and the solenoid.
Great 👍 info
The screws to hook the power on to the starter looks like copper so this is a spare starter and you can not thighten this screws so strong as these from the original starter otherwise you overscrew the windings. If the contact plate of the solenoid randomly does not close the circuit for the starter motor then the owners often start to hammer on the starter motor wich does help for a while but this becomes more worse and you should change the complete starter motor because the silver coating on the contact plate is gone and it will corrode how ever you try to fix that. Except the case you can get only the correct solenoid or its contact plates. The wax spray does really work very well because after the rust is scratched away the iron does rust for a while after it is coated with wax because of the oxygen that is already in the iron. But when this happens the wax will follow the expansion of the iron during rusting an it finally comes to an end of expansion du to not getting more oxygen. If you use paint or other not flexible coatings, they crack an let new oxygen in. For badly rusted parts I use first oil for a few weeks until the iron really stops rusting. An then I use wax spray. After a few month I can now decide to remove the oil an the wax and make a paint or still keep wax on it because it is a moving part or a bolt or a nut that I often have to remove. Cool video, thanks for sharing!
Clark I don't know if these marine starters are similar to automotive starters, but I use to take apart the solenoid and inside was a spring loaded metal disk that would engage and closed the circuit continuity
They are a bit less rebuildable then they used to be. Now most of the solenoid doesn't really come apart.
But yes they are the same as automotive. Since it's a diesel (high compression) they are higher torque then you would think.
Spray wax might have lower flash point than oil since it is a solvent . Light oil better.
Keep this up good job u guys 👍
Thanks
Nice video- thanks! Not sure if you did this but before removing it would you first want to check the voltage going to the starter? Seems like lower than optimal voltage could result in it turning but not fast enough.
Sure could. I should have mentioned that in the video. My bad. Just wanted to show how to "field strip" a starter to people who might need that knowledge someday.
We found that Steve's starter had that need so I made the video. It was not a complete class on boat electrical. Honestly the video was too long already.
Super video! Thanks E & C.
Love the video haven't finished yet. But it sounds like cracking the injector lines to bleed the air would help to??
Seems to me the valve are out of adjustment. Notice the smoke coming out the intake.
This boat has been on the hard for many months. Steve has been very sick. Surgeries...
He hopes to launch this week. I'm planning to out an AC into his boat and help him get this engine started.
... very nice sequence on the workings of the starter, complete with the occasional anecdote. Appreciate the ancillary info like what WD-40 is and what it's for, and Boeshield...
8^)
Glad you enjoyed the video. We sometimes don't get as many views on videos like this. Good to hear they are appreciated.
... I would guess there's a cruising/adventure/social viewership, and then there are the technical aspects that appeal to those that want to help themselves in a crisis. It was a good, basic explanation without getting into electrical theory and beyond. Very practical. At least a viewer can now decide whether to tackle something like this with their skillset or leave it to a professional, or at least have the confidence to remove the starter so they can drop it off to get rebuilt/fixed, then re-install it themselves. Save on the budget where you can. 8^)
I was having trouble with my dozer starter with a Perkins. Turned out the rust between the engine and starter was effecting the ground.
Really cool. Thanks 😊
You're very welcome
Use shellac to coat parts.
Good idea.
Well, I’m a train engineer and that’s not the way I would...😂😂😂 I know very little about starter motors, but I actually understand more now. Thanks 👍👍👍
Thanks Clay
Hey Clark Emily. Just today I discovered the nice channel of yours. I will sure be back. One question: What is the name of your signature tune? /Frans, sailor and musician
Hi Clarke, I really enjoyed watching this video on starter motors. I also have a Yanmar 4JH5E on my Catalina 42Mk2 based in Melbourne Australia. Can you please indicate which make and model of spare starter motor you use and where I can purchase a unit. Many thanks , Gary on SV Meshugah.
Just start with your yanmar part number and hit eBay. Also search on 4jh engines. The 5e part doesn't matter.
My friend striped down my new yanmar starter due to corrosion in all parts of the starter. Caused through the bell housing being full of salt water
Yes this starter can't tolerate salt water. It's just not as good as old starters but they would cost so much nowdays with all that copper in them.
One point in favor of plastic gears is, at least they won't rust.
Yep. And if they work they work.
Just remember if you guys cant fix it Emily can ,she can also show you how to do maintenance on winches
You forgot the rubber seal 😊
Another great class. How are things in Luperon? We are considering swinging through there on our way south.
Thanks.
Luperon is not for everyone. Can't say it's my favorite place but it is a good place to rest if you are going east.
I don't think we would have come here if it wasn't for covid, but I'm really glad we did. I think for this world event we are in one of the best places.
@@EmilyAndClark That's a fair assessment, thanks! We've heard so many mixed reviews but I guess that is always the case when you ask 10 people the same question. Maybe we will sail direct to Puerto Plata instead.
Are his mounts shot? My engine won’t move back and forth like that from just the torque of turning a wrench.
No soft mounts and a saildrive
I was shouting at you that you forgot something that goes in the starter motor and having lol when you had to take it apart again .
Please shout louder into your time machine next time. I could use the help.
At ~5:50, that engine was bouncing around hard enough to make me STRONGLY believe that it's mounts are SHOT.
FREE advice is ALWAYS worth 10 times what you paid for it - MINE is GUARANTEED to be worth TWENTY!
They are just soft mounts and Conrad hit the bolt hard breaking it free.
Boats don't have to accelerate like trucks and this boat has saildrives so no alignment issues. Soft mounts keep the boat from vibrating and make everything quieter.
What do you mean by "hammer a hacksaw blade kerf flat"? Isn't it already flat? Can you add some clarification? Thank you
Look at one. They have kerf. Kinda wavering right and left over several teeth.
that starter did not spin twice faster at all 😅
werd they don`t contruct a better starter since its the same construction since the first person was too lasy to krank the engine themself ( not to mention the backfireing when when they set the ignition time wrong)and they know it only will do the job the first month on the sea but why make a knew since they work 5,10,15 and sometimes 25 years on land depending a little on hov many starts a day
All modern starters seem to be high speed low torque motors with planetary gear reduction. This approach uses a LOT less copper. Copper is expensive!
Once they start trying to save money they continue with bad brush holders and apparently plastic gears.
... suggestion: park the wind generator so it's not whining during the recording. 8^)
Yes we kept kicking ourselves about that during editing
... at least it was relatively benign, just background noise and only slightly distracting. Anyone who has one, probably don't really hear it anymore but I recognized it after a few seconds. I wasn't sure if it was the one on this boat, or nearby, but it sounded close. The video came out clear for the most part, which is fortunate. 8^)
Do you carry QD CRC electronic cleaner?
A
No. Ice had contact cleaner destroy plastic parts in the past
⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️
And the plastic parts in the cheap ones is absolutely ridiculous!
Yes. But maybe the plastic is fine. Yanmars start easily. Maybe it will never wear out. Well at least not until the brush holder fails anyway. -C
Great info but for God's sake. Edit! No reason in the world this cannot be a 10 minute video! Have mercy on your fans! EDIT EDIT EDIT. Chekhov said "Brevity is the sister of talent"
WD -40 = water displacer
Sounds like no compression
Yes. I think (or hope) the valves just need adjusting. But didn't want to dig deeper till it turned over well.
There is smoke (unburned diesel) coming out the intake.
Awesome video cheers
tooHarsh,Sandpaper.
I don't think anyone makes a reliable starter. I'm at number 3 on my universal "kubota" engine
I liked the one on my Perkins 4-108. But these geared starters might be the same level of durable.
my beta marine kubota use the same starter than the Isuzu pickup truck gasoline, and cost over the counter on auto part store $80 to $100. i rebuilt my so many times that the plastic brush holder melt beyond repair.
Sounds like a similar starter. I usually find these for about $60us