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Well, was gonna go fishing today and the rain took care of that. Decided to try again in the morning. Boat cleaned, fueled, packed and ready to go. Went to start it just to be sure, and wouldn't you know....starter is not engaging. The motor is a 2000 Johnson 50 hp, and has NEVER not started. I'm guessing starter solenoid???? Starter gear will spin, just not engage the flywheel. Just installed new batteries too. What do you guys think??? West Marine has a solenoid in stock, but I couldn't get there before they closed this evening. They don't open till 9am tomorrow morning and that pretty much kills the day

Just took a look at starter photo for that model motor. It does not have an on-starter solenoid if the photos I see are right. The flywheel is engaged by the spinup of the starter with a centrifugal type gear. It is probably just stuck. Take the starter off, and lube the part of the shaft the red arrow in the photo points to. (You may even be able to get to it without removing the starter) Then free it up where it will spin in and out. The gear should move out to the end of the starter shaft and back freely. Get that done and you should be good to go!

A solenoid won't fix the problem you got. All the solenoid does on that model is send juice to starter motor, not engage the gears with a magnet.

EDIT: I will add there is a SLIGHT chance that the motor is bad and is not spinning fast enough to spin the gear out. But if the motor is spinning fast, then the above is the problem. If it spins slow and sounds sluggish, then the motor itself could be bad.



Dubble

Wow....how is that for good advice! Interested in knowing how it turned out.

I have done the same thing. Spray WD-40 or any other lube and free the shaft up, Quickfix.

CHECK CONNECTION ON THE BATTERY TO THE MOTOR, CLEAN AND PUT BACK ON. SPRAY SHAFT WITH LUBE. AND YOU SHOULD BE READY TO GO.
PA
SEMPER FI

Agree with DUBBLE TURBBLE. I had a 200 Johnson with the same problem. DT's solution fixed it up. As long as I kept the shaft lubed, it never gave me another problem.

Never do anything without lubing your shaft first.

FIXED!!! Exactly what it was.....dry shaft The starter had a different layout than what Dubble posted, but close enough. Disassembled, cleaned and lubed and it was like brand new The pee hole tube coming out of the water pump on the top of the motor was leaking due to a split hose. The water was running over the starter and it built up inside the shaft and caused it to seize. Motor was serviced recently, but somehow the split water line was missed

Thanks guys for your input

If I had been around when you posted this I would have told you the same as the others.
Common problem on the Johnson/Evinrude.

If I would have seen this before the others and JT I would've told you exactly what the problem and how to fix it.

JT51 wudda just told you to put more freon in it!

And Rocket, well he ain't no scientist!

Dubble