Cranking question

2000 225 Ficht with intermittent cranking issue that you have seen me and others post on before. At times it fires right up and sometimes it just turns over fine but does not fire. Most everyone says it is the EMM. My question is though that I had problems with it yesterday not firing. Pulled the cowling off to do voltage check at starter solenoid when not firing (was getting 10.1 volts) and noticed the bendix would stay at the flywheel everytime I tried cranking and when I turn the key off. After about 30 attempts to crank yesterday, it only fired 4 times. Put it in the water this morning to fish and it fired everytime. Took cowl back off and noticed that everytime the motor would fire the bendix to the starter would fall back down. When it acts up and doesn't fire, the bendix stays at the flywheel.

Is this normal? Thanks.

normal - if you rotate the flywheel by hand clockwise, the drive will disengage and fall back down.

You may need professional help to troubleshoot the ignition, fuel, electrical, and sensor systems to make certain that it is an EMM problem and not other things.

Seahorse, tell me what function the filter module (delay relay) performs when starting and could this be the culprit. Is there an easy way to check them?

mine has went bad twice, and it caused it to slow crank, crank but to slow to start and not crank at all sometimes,a new relay will be an easy way to check.

I had a hard start issue on my 04 that I posted about previously - much like you describe. In my case it was two issues - first was the bendix sticking in the flywheel causing a low voltage (~9v) on the start assist circuit from the solenoid (terminal I if I recall correctly) when cranking, second was the solenoid itself going bad - the key test was finding 12V on terminal S but 0V on terminal I while cranking, the motor would crank over just fine but with no juice on the SAC to get the motor running. Disassembled and cleaned the relevant parts of the starter and replaced the solenoid ($20), no more problems. Not saying these are your problems but from my experince first thing I'd check are voltages at solenoid terminals while cranking - this will identify a problem at the solenoid or point you downstream. The fact that it cranks I think means your start delay relay and neutral start switch upstream of the solenoid are ok.

I have already replaced the starter solenoid and performed voltage checks. I was getting 10.1V at the pink wire on the solenoid going to the SAC, both when it fires and when it doesn't. Also had the capacitor checked and it was fine.