My starter is turning over really slow and my negative terminal on my battery is getting really hot. Can this all be due to a bad starter?

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Hi Chad,

It COULD be a bad starter, but first you should check all the big wires, and terminals to insure you don't have a partial short in the start circuit, or a weak ground. If you verify the wiring and connections are sound, then it is probably worth pulling the starter off and taking it to a starter/generator electrical repair shop and have it tested.

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Hot (Thermally speaking) wires are usually caused by either a connection that needs to be tightened or an excessive amp draw. If all of your connections are good and your starter checks good, you may have an issue with the engine being too hard to turn over due to bad bearings, rusted cylinders etc. If everything else checks ok try turning the engine over by hand with the spark plugs removed and the ign switch turned off. You should be able to turn it without too much trouble.

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Hey IBOB, you ever turn over a 3.0L by hand?

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With the spark plugs removed....come on Barry it's late on the east coast, but not so late central time... With the spark plugs removed a hamster on a treadmill could turn it over.....BUT keep your fingers out of the pulleys!

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I don't think so. You see, there is no flywheel nut accessible to put a wrench on in front of the motor. And trying to turn the waterpump pulley that drives the alternator and the crankshaft won't do it. I've try many times, can't budge it, even without plugs. You must remember you are also turning the driveshaft, u-joints, spinning the upper gears and turning the impeller in the water pump housing. It was a trick question Joe. You fell into my trap. IBOB was smarter.

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Lotsa people are smarter than me, Barry! Some of them even know more than I do. I haven't ever tried to turn over a 3.0 manually, but from my experience with the 454 in my Mastercraft Nautique, I turned that over by hand with the plugs out, and without any real difficulty. And that had a crankshaft pulley one COULD put a wrench on and turn it over with the plugs in it....with a long breaker bar! So, I figured an engine half the size of a 305 V-8 would be a snap. If you say no, that's because you know more than I do. I'm gonna go out to the barn and get greasy; the A/C is broke in the house!

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I was able to turn a 3.0L over by hand when the motor was out of the boat. Put a friction strap on the couple and could get it to move. In the boat, I've had no luck. If you put a bottle jack under the motor and remove the front motor mount support, then you could get a wrench on the flywheel nut and do it.

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Chad - I had the exact same problem. Would start when cold, but after running 15 minutes, if I shut it off, starter seemed to drag and would not turn over. I got some of the same advice you got here (wire damage, shorts, bad starter).

Before replacing your starter, which will be pretty costly, look at the battery itself. turns out, my battery was 7 years old - I thought I got a new one a few years back. Check the date. Even if not that old, I would take it to NAPA and have them test it (much cheaper to buy this stuff there than my local boat dealer). I got a 900 CA battery for 65 bucks.

No problems since.

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Thanks! It ended up being a bad negative connector. 10 bucks for a new wire with connectors at Auto Zone. No problems since.

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Hey, CaptJoe got one right! Dementia has not set in quite yet. Welcome back, how was the birthday cake?

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Probably lit up like a christmas tree.... No wait that was Joe that was lit! :)

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Well, apparently Fred is not here to take half-credit for being right, so.....what the heck, I'll take the bow!

It was a helluva party, and Mom was really "up" for it.....shit, I don't wanna live to be 101! It was forty degrees up there the morning of her party....just a reminder why we moved to NC! And here the bears quit raiding the garbage when you open a door and yell; up there they keep at it until you hit them with low brass 7 1/2.... I love NC...

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Thanks! It ended up being a bad negative connector. 10 bucks for a new wire with connectors at Auto Zone. No problems since.

Kind of an old rule of thumb is that if you crank the starter for a couple seconds, and then start feeling all the related connection...if you find a hot connection, that's usually where the problem is.

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