44xs starter

[bigkahuna]

Can you add a electric starter on a Mercury 44xs? I see it has the mounting bracket and I know the flywheel is different.
Thanks Rod

[Fastjeff57]

That's all you need, but racers use the lighter 'wheel for better acceleration.

Jeff

[zul8tr]

as well as reducing top heaviness, lowering CG and tipsiness in a turn.

[bigkahuna]

That's all you need, but racers use the lighter 'wheel for better acceleration.

Jeff
Thank you any other parts needed. A starter off a 45 hp would work. Ever heard of using a go kart remote starter being used
Rod

[Yellowjacket]

If you're using the 44xs on any kind of a race boat, you don't want to use the heavy stock 500 flywheel. The boat won't slow down when you back out of the throttle and that can be dangerous.

Fortunately you can put electric start on the 44xs and it's easy to do IF you have the right pieces.

The 44xs uses the aluminum flywheel from the 2.5 liter 200 hp high performance engines. On the 44xs that flywheel is used without a ring gear, but they add the "crown" above the flex plate from the manual start 500 so the rope starter can be used. If you have an original 44xs you won't have the ring gear that is supplied with the big motors. The ring gear bolts on or if you get a 2.5 liter flywheel, that flywheel has a ring gear on it and if you have the right one you can use it with the standard Merc 500 starter.

You will have to change the center hub of the 2.5 flywheel to the standard Merc 500 hub but that bolts on directly with the same bolt pattern in the flex plate, and of course you will need to get a stock 500 crown from a manual start motor if you want to keep the rope start as a backup. As I understand it there are a couple of different ring gears and starter pinions. The Merc 500 uses a 10 tooth pinion and IIRC there are some 11 tooth pinions and ring matching ring gear combos out there.

The bottom of the starter is held to the block with a half round "cup" that bolts onto the block. This isn't on the rope start motors so you'll need that half cup to hold the bottom of the starter. The top bracket of the rope start motors have the full round clamp for the starter, why I don't know.

I have a 44xs spec powerhead with the 2.5 flywheel and stock 500 hub and crown so I can rope start the motor if I run down the battery. I'm using the stock Merc 500 starter (from a 1979 powerhead) and it all works perfectly. You just have to get all the right pieces and you are good to go. If you get on Crowley marine you can look at the parts diagrams and with some time in the boneyard you can build up what you need.

Unfortunately the 2.5 liter flywheels are getting really hard to find. I have one on my motor and a spare that has been boogered up (drilled to balance it) and I sold my last good spare a couple of years ago. You used to see them on Ebay for around $250 to $300, but I haven't seen one for the last couple of years. If you can find the pieces and parts it's easy, but the hard part is finding the flywheel. If you have a 44xs finding the right ring gear may also be tough, I don't know the part number for it, or if it's still available or not. If you look carefully in the parts diagrams you may be able to find the part number for the ring gear.

At the time I was doing it, it was easier for me to buy a junk rope start motor and a junk electric start motor and that way I had all the parts I needed, and I parted out the pieces I didn't need and that more than paid for the pieces I ended up with.

Good luck.