Hey All, I’ve got a tricky issue that I’d like to get some advice on. Last fall I had my ‘new to me’ 2003 200hp Evinrude winterized and stored for the winter at a local boat dealership. I picked the boat up a couple of weeks ago and have had trouble getting it to start. After checking the battery, I pulled the cover off to see if the starter was functioning correctly.

I found that the top 3 nuts hold the cap portion of the starter in place were loose and the cap itself had broken in half. This was causing two problems: first, the broken piece of the cap was interfering with the flywheel and second, the starter gear was not disengaging from the flywheel.

I bought the boat in June of last year and had never touched the starter so there are only a couple options for how/when it happened

1. It happened during winterization or de-winterization.
2. The nuts worked themselves loose and it happened over time.
3. They have been loose from some work the previous owner did and the cap didn’t break until now.

So I guess my questions are:

Is it a normal winterization procedure to loosen these nuts for any reason?

And has anyone ever seen these nuts work themselves loose?

I'm going to talk to the dealership today, just wanted to see if the experts on this board had any insight for me.

Thanks