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Mainebristol · 21-06-2009, 21:47

My immediate thought is the transmission. I'm sure you've checked, but is slop in the shifter leaving it in gear some of the time? Has the transmission been serviced recently? I know, this is far fetched, but you didn't mention it, so I thought I would. How is the oil? Again, obvious. Air filter? Restricted breathing might cause this, and it's easy to check.
My point is that something is restricted. If your starter is working that hard, it's clearly fighting something. A siezed pulley leaps to mind. All of these are dead easy to check, and should take less than ten minutes, tops. Alternator siezed? Again, obvious.
A quick test. How does it turn with the cylinders opened up? Mine spins like crazy, which is a quick way to lube the engine before starting it. If yours does too, you've just eliminated most of my ideas. But not the airfilter. A locked water pump could do this as well. So very easy to check.
All of the accessories drag on the engine, but if any one of them seizes, that would account for your symptoms, which leads to another obvious question; how is the belt? Is it leaving black powder all over the engine space? A dead giveaway that it is slipping on something. In all of this I am assuming that something cheap and far more prone to failure than the engine has done exactly that.

Best of luck!

Maine Bristol SV Eider, B32 (Yanmar y2f)

21-06-2009, 21:47	#2
Mainebristol Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 17	Accessories usually break first My immediate thought is the transmission. I'm sure you've checked, but is slop in the shifter leaving it in gear some of the time? Has the transmission been serviced recently? I know, this is far fetched, but you didn't mention it, so I thought I would. How is the oil? Again, obvious. Air filter? Restricted breathing might cause this, and it's easy to check. My point is that something is restricted. If your starter is working that hard, it's clearly fighting something. A siezed pulley leaps to mind. All of these are dead easy to check, and should take less than ten minutes, tops. Alternator siezed? Again, obvious. A quick test. How does it turn with the cylinders opened up? Mine spins like crazy, which is a quick way to lube the engine before starting it. If yours does too, you've just eliminated most of my ideas. But not the airfilter. A locked water pump could do this as well. So very easy to check. All of the accessories drag on the engine, but if any one of them seizes, that would account for your symptoms, which leads to another obvious question; how is the belt? Is it leaving black powder all over the engine space? A dead giveaway that it is slipping on something. In all of this I am assuming that something cheap and far more prone to failure than the engine has done exactly that. Best of luck! Maine Bristol SV Eider, B32 (Yanmar y2f)