MerCruiser Starter in my 77 Chrysler 318?

They should last a lot longer I would inspect the mounting surfaces to be sure there isn't something causing the starter to be tilted towards flywheel.Maybe somewhere along the the line the wrong starter was installed and you are following it with the same part number.Sound like a lot to do but I would coat the bendix with Dykem and crank it a couple times to see where the contact points are against the ring gear.

I take mine apart clean and reassemble every couple years. you would be amazed how much crud,rust,scale accumulation there is after just a couple years. Make sure bendix is smooth and no broken springs they are simple and last forever.Most I ever put in is a set of brushes and have gotten some pretty crusty ones back in service.

Should not be the problem then,it could be the cables if they are old or the connections need cleaning at both ends or the starter just may be tired

If it worked in the past I IMHO would get it rebuilt. If its a reverse rotation those parts don't exactly grow on trees. There are other reasons for that clicking too,35 year old cables,bad connections,deep cycle battery instead of a correct starting battery and the resulting bad solenoid.

Hi so I'm preaty sure my starter when out on my 1970 ski nautique. at first it would just make a loud click and then sorta turn over some times. I tightend the conection from the silinoid to the starter and then it made a bunch of nasty grinding noises when i tried to start it and now it just makes a loud click again when I go to start it. my first question is does this seem like a reasonable asumption on my part that its the starter?
my second question is that when I looked at the starter it aprears to be a MerCruiser which seems odd. the part number is 50-69865 which came up as MerCruiser when I googled it. what I was expecting was 2875928 which would be the seemingly correct part for a LM318. what should I do, Should I order the starter that is the right one for the boat or buy a Mercruiser replacement one?

I apprecait all the help and responces!
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