1989 Evinrude 60HP Stall and won't start

[egiffy37]

Last weekend I was going across some rough water (very bumpy) and once I got out of the wind I noticed that the engine was acting like it was going to stall. I was going along at ~80% open throttle and although it would intermittently "stall", the motor never did die. I noticed that the throttle didn't seem as responsive as normal too. Anyways, we got to our fishing spot and after an hour or so we decided to move. Motor started normally but died as soon as I tried to put it in gear. This happened once more and then it wouldn't turn over. After about 30 mins of looking at the motor it started up and I was able to get to a nearby marina. We took the motor cover off and I could see gas coming out of the little drain hole on the cover over the carbs. I removed the cover and the carb intake piece but couldn't see anything visibly wrong. Reassembled everything and it fired right up and ran like normal until we were within a few hundred yards from home. We stopped to fish once more and haven't been able to get the motor started since. My first thought was that one of the carb needles got stuck in the open position and was flooding out the cylinder. I rebuilt all three carbs last night and took it to the lake to test about an hour ago. I couldn't get it to start but noticed a large gas/oil slick behind the motor. I say gas/oil because I removed the VRO about 10 years ago and have to mix the gas manually. I pulled the boat out and when I trimmed the motor back down gas started running out from around the prop (exhaust?) With the engine off I can't see a leak anywhere but haven't tried looking while cranking yet. Has anyone seen anything like this before? I'd like to fix this myself so I can have a better shot of fixing a problem on the water in the future but don't want to fumble around too long with this either. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm planning on checking the spark plugs and compression tomorrow since its easy, unless people don't think its necessary.

Thanks,
Keith

 

[flyingscott]

What position is the red handle on the primer in. Yes do compression and spark tests.

 

[egiffy37]

I will check this afternoon and post my results.

 

[egiffy37]

I checked the compression and all three cylinders read 95 psi. I am going to confirm those readings tomorrow with a new pressure gauge since the one I used was pretty old. Good news is all three were the same. More importantly, I checked the plugs and no sparks on any of them. I tried two spark testers and nothing. I guess I know where to focus my efforts now but any suggestions on components to check first would be appreciated.
-Keith

 

[egiffy37]

I ran down the CDI troubleshooting list for no spark and as soon as I disconnected the yellow wires from the rectifier the motor fired right up. I got a new rectifier this afternoon and it didn't do any good. It wouldn't start but when I disconnect the yellow wires again it fired right up. Does this point to a bad stator? What do the yellow wires from the rectifier connect to? Is it possible that a bad rectifier could damage the powerpack/coils or vice versa?

 

[TrueNorthist]

I maybe out in left field here, but have you tried isolating the remote? I have seen key switches and dead-man switches go bad after a good pounding on the chuck.

 

[Fed]

Did you remove the stator yellow leads from the terminal block or did you remove the rectifier yellow leads from the terminal block?
Do you have a grey tacho wire connected at the terminal block?

 

[emdsapmgr]

The rectifier is part of the engine's charging system. It is not related to the ignition system. Weak ignition components tend to act up when they warm up. May run fine when the engine is cold. Once the engine heats up to normal operating temps, that's when ignition components tend to fail. Does this correlate to the way your engine operates?

 

[egiffy37]

No Title

I removed the yellow wires from the rectifier and left the stator wires connected to the terminal block. There is a grey wire connected to terminal 3 which I assume is the tachometer. The way my terminal block is set up is terminal 1 is isolated but terminals 2 and 3 are bridged. So when I removed the two rectifier wires the stator lead at terminal 1 is floating but the stator lead at terminal 2 is bridged to the grey tacho wire at terminal 3. Attached is a picture of the terminal block if that helps.

 

[Fed]

The rectifier is part of the engine's charging system. It is not related to the ignition system.

Six Months ago I would have said exactly the same thing emdsapmgr but since reading the CDI stuff I've had a re-think.
They are electrically isolated but still share a common iron core stator, it stands to reason that overloading that magnetic circuit with a dead short in the rectifier could/would/maybe be detrimental to the ignition voltages. Interesting stuff that goes against what has been taken as gospel since I first joined the site.

Back to egiffy.
Mate, on face value you'd have to conclude there is a problem downstream from the terminal block in the direction of the rectifier.
Did you replace with a geniune OMC part?
Did you ensure the rectifier ground was perfect?

I was hoping you would say you disconnected the stator yellows from the block which would open the door to a dead short on the tacho grey causing the problem but it wasn't to be.

Rectifier connected to block = no spark.
Rectifier disconnected from block = spark.

It's hard to get past this at the moment, maybe you should run a retest of the above just to be 100% sure.

 

[jakedaawg]

I am probably thinking way wrong but....would removing the rec/reg leads not open the circuit?

 

[Fed]

would removing the rec/reg leads not open the circuit?

Not sure what you mean jake but it would be worth trying with only the tacho grey wire removed.
First I'd retest both rectifiers then try removing the tacho wire.