Broken Starter Pull Cord Repair

Simon Sexton

Simon Sexton

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Nov 1, 2017
635
Catalina 25 Sea Star Base Galveston, TX
Hey guys! So, the story: Yesterday I went down to Kemah to clean my boat and take her out for a sail. The winds were pretty low, but enough to give my 25 footer some power for a light cruise. I finally finished cleaning her and took the mains'l cover off; as I sat down in the cockpit and pulled the cord to start my Mercury 9.9 two-stroke, it came completely loose. Suffice to say, my day of cruising with my family is now postponed. I have repaired and worked on inboard engines all my life, but have minimal experience working with outboards in terms of maintenance. Does anyone know the most efficient way to fix this problem within a decent amount of time?

God bless,
S.S.
 
py26129

py26129

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Oct 25, 2011
576
Island Packet IP31 Lake St. Louis, Montreal
Been there, done that. Watch out for the recoil spring when you take the motor apart. If it comes unwound it will do so very suddenly. Be careful. Rewinding it is a bugger, usually facilitated by much colorful language. Other than that it's not too tough of a job

Cheers

Matt
 
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Ron20324

Ron20324

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Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
I wonder if someone has ever installed a socket drive on the outboard to use a cordless drill (a-la-winches) on an outboard flywheel or such? Or like a handcrank-start diesel?
 
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capta

capta

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Jun 4, 2009
4,772
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
Ron20324 said:
I wonder if someone has ever installed a socket drive on the outboard to use a cordless drill (a-la-winches) on an outboard flywheel or such? Or like a handcrank-start diesel?
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Without a ratchet I believe that would be extremely dangerous. If the motor started that drill would be spinning pretty darn fast.
 
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B

Benny17441

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May 24, 2004
7,131
CC 30 South Florida
Reminds me of a trip we took on the Long Island Sound more than 15 years ago. On the last leg from Port Jefferson to Northport we got up in the morning and prepared the boat (85 Starwind 223) to sail. When we were ready to cast off from the mooring I pulled the cord and the engine started but the cord broke off. For a second we thought about shutting down the engine and repairing the cord but we decided to go on and fix it at the end of trip. We knew the old two stroke Nissan 9.8 was reliable and would not likely die but also that we could not turn it off until we got to our destination. The burn rate was 1 gph and we knew we had enough fuel but that we would have to refuel the 2.5 gallon tank on the fly. I do remember we got out on the Sound and were flying at 8 knots with a favorable current but an hour out of Northport the tide changed and our boat speed went down to 1 knot over the ground. We started tacking back and forth to and from the Connecticut shore but were not making good ground. Fuel was starting to become an issue. It took us three hours to travel the remaining distance to our destination. We dropped sails and motored in to the community dock. My memory fails me but I think we sailed like 7-8 hours and once finally tied up I pulled the safety plug to shut the engine down. While my buddy unloaded the boat I took off the cowling and tied the remaining piece of line unto the recoil mechanism. I took me about 20 minutes but the shortened cord was working. If we had stopped to fix it in the morning we would have lost some of the favorable current and probably would have had to fight for an extra hour to reach our destination. God forbid we would have lost or required a part that would have made us to cancel that departure. Next morning we were on a plane back to Florida while a friend took over the boat for a week's sail. The old pull cord did not get replaced for another 2 years.
 
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py26129

py26129

.
Oct 25, 2011
576
Island Packet IP31 Lake St. Louis, Montreal
capta said:
Without a ratchet I believe that would be extremely dangerous. If the motor started that drill would be spinning pretty darn fast.
Click to expand
Not that I'm endorsing the method but that's a pretty common way to add "electric start" to your snowblower up here

Matt
 
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Simon Sexton

Simon Sexton

.
Nov 1, 2017
635
Catalina 25 Sea Star Base Galveston, TX
Thanks to all you guys for the helpful input! I'll definitely be careful of the spring, and I'll look at youtube for the little technical things. Thanks again; and I enjoyed your story Benny! It's always fun to tell stories to which other sailors can relate ;)!
 
py26129

py26129

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Oct 25, 2011
576
Island Packet IP31 Lake St. Louis, Montreal
They range form 4-5 hp to 15+. Mine is started as designed with the pull cord.

A (lucky?) friend and my father in law had 10hp blowers that were routinely started with a drill motor and a socket.

Matt
 
Ron20324

Ron20324

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Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
capta said:
.... If the motor started that drill would be spinning pretty darn fast.
Click to expand
Oh, I dunno... How fast does the outboard go at idle compared to the drill speed??? They used to start car engines that by manual cranking. And how fast does the rope go when you pull it and the motor starts up. I'm sure someone could make it happen, other than the snowblowers since they already do it.
 
jviss

jviss

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Feb 5, 2004
6,745
Tartan 3800 20 Westport, MA
Ron20324 said:
Oh, I dunno... How fast does the outboard go at idle compared to the drill speed??? They used to start car engines that by manual cranking. And how fast does the rope go when you pull it and the motor starts up. I'm sure someone could make it happen, other than the snowblowers since they already do it.
Click to expand
A big risk is you lose your grip on the drill, and it spins around real fast and then is flung off, hopefully not at one's head, most likely towards open water.
 
capta

capta

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Jun 4, 2009
4,772
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
Ron20324 said:
They used to start car engines that by manual cranking. And how fast does the rope go when you pull it and the motor starts up.
Click to expand
Have you ever seen an engine crank? They are designed to NOT turn once the engine starts running, and people still got hurt occasionally! If you put a drill and a socket on an outboard flywheel nut to start it, you are risking serious injury. There absolutely must be a ratchet or a release.
 
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justsomeguy

justsomeguy

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Feb 20, 2011
7,993
Island Packet 35 Tucson, AZ/San Carlos, MX
While I'm unfamiliar with the 9.9, can't you just open the cowling, remove the pull-start guard and wrap a line clockwise around the exterior of the pull-start flange?

And then pull, of course. o_O
 
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gdudik

gdudik

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Oct 25, 2017
87
Catalina 22 Vancouver, WA
Ron20324 said:
Oh, I dunno... How fast does the outboard go at idle compared to the drill speed??? They used to start car engines that by manual cranking. And how fast does the rope go when you pull it and the motor starts up. I'm sure someone could make it happen, other than the snowblowers since they already do it.
Click to expand
How many cold engines start at their slowest idle speed? On cold start, my engine is at 1/2 throttle to start it. According to the manual (5hp 2 stroke mercury) idle is still just shy of 1,000 rpm.
 
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