someone please help! i bought a 1988 yamaha moto 4, 350 4-stroke and it was cranking a little difficult and now will not hardly turn engine over at all! the starter is turning but only occasionally the engine will turn over. hand pull is broke but you can manually turn engine with cover off and it has compression. i cant see anything broke! what will make the starter turn but not keep engine engaged? i dont see a typical bendix but the motor acts like something is slipping when you engage the starter. the starter turns and growls but engine isnt turning? what do i check? what usually fails and causes this to happen? it was running fine and just when i tried to re-crank it will not turn the flywheel.

 

Bad one-way clutch? I'm not familiar with your machine, but experienced this failure on another.

Repair involves pulling a case cover, removing the starter mechanism, pulling the one-way clutch and repairing or replacing it. A service manual, at least an exploded parts diagram (from your dealer's microfiche) should come in handy.

The broken recoil starter results more than likely from a broken or weak spring.

Tree Farmer