Keep it Turning

Earlier this year a seller on Ebay was parting out a running 1959 McCulloch Flying Scott and I bought the starter immediately. (You can never have enough starter parts for your Scott.) So I now have 4 starters.

1. The original Starter that came with the motor. (Currently lost at my friends shop but it'll show up.)
2. My first replacement starter bought on Ebay from Zorkos.com. ($189)
3. The starter that came on my 1959 Flying Scott "parts" motor bought on Craigs List. ($50)
4. The second replacement starter bought on Ebay ($45) from a private seller parting out a running motor.

When I first bought the boat the starter #1 was the problem (or so I thought). When I brought the #2 starter to Advanced Marine they said it was also bad. So when we first put the boat in the water, the #3 starter was the production starter on the motor.

The #3 starter was used all summer with the exception of failing once when the return spring broke. This failure allowed the starter gear to stay engaged on the flywheel even after the power to the starter was stopped. This was fixed by replacing the spring with parts from the #2 starter.

This Spring I bought #4 so I put #4 on the boat. (The newest one is always the best right?) I ran this starter until mid-July when it failed. The starter turns just fine but the gear won't "spool" up to engage the flywheel. So I pulled the starter and put #3 back on.

So to get #2 and #4 back in service it need parts and look what I found...

API Marine in Florida has Delco-Remy 10 tooth gears with return springs. This kit should fix the problem with both starters. I'm going to order 3 kits. One each for the starters and 1 spare. Hopefully soon I will have an army of working Flying Scott 60 Hp starters.

Next year I'm going to test a theory I have about the #2 starter bought from Zorkos. This starter is like new and should be great once I replace the stolen parts. I originally thought it was "too tight" and that's why it wouldn't turn the motor over so I was using the "loose" #3 starter. Later I figured out my battery cables were too small and I was starving the starter of the Amps. The light gauge cables allowed the worn #3 starter to turn just enough to fire the motor and the new battery cables allowed #3 to work great. My theory is the #2 starter with the heavy cables will be the best setup. But I promised my wife I wouldn't "fix something that's not broke" (aka "Upgrade") the motor until after the summer boating season is over.

HEARTBREAK UPDATE

"We scrapped those." — API Marine

"We don't even show that number in our system.
Where did you see it?" — Go 2 Marine

Let me Google that for you it folks, its your web site not mine... Click Here