Starter finally took a dump on my 01 225efi I think. It's making a grinding noise and is not turning or disengaging from the flywheel. Problem may just be the bendix gear on top of the starter. I did notice metal shavings on top of the bendix gear. Sounds like the starter is turning fine but maybe the bending gear is stripped and not spinning the sprocket fast enough or allowing it to drop. Anyone familiar with this issue. Starter is 22yrs old so I have no problem replacing it, just want to be sure it's the starter and not the bendix gear or starter solenoid issue. Thanks in advance guys.

My last boat had a mercury. It was two 10mm bolts and one wire lug. Took about 5 minutes the change.

Thanks Steez,did your starter make a grinding noise when the bendix gear was bad?

It made all kinds of bad noises. Bad thing was I kept buying cheap starters from Amazon, then those tore up the gears on the Flywheel. I then had to buy a new flywheel. After that one, I had the original starter rebuilt and never had an issue with it again.

Do not buy a cheap starter from an unknown company. Take your original to a quality rebuilder and have it rebuilt.

Recommendations for good rebuilders in East Texas? I'm in Tyler.

I don't know of any good rebuilders for starters/alternators in East Texas but Steez is right, do not buy a cheap junk amazon/ebay starter. If you want an OEM starter shoot me your serial number, but be warned Mercury is usually proud of them.

Slow poke

easy