Thanks in advance for any help; this one's beyond my meager skills.
So, engine trouble started last year after I put some old gas in on a run back from the fishing hole. I figured I'd fouled the carb and it needed a little cleaner. I had to leave the boat for a while, and then my dad and his friend put some time in and got it going but it was unclear what they did, aside from altering my idle speed and "whacking the power pack a couple times."
So I started it up when I wintered it last fall and it went just fine after a couple turns of the key.
Fast forward to last month, when I try to start it and there's only a brief bang before the whole thing shuts down. As soon as 1 cylinder caught the whole thing seemed to shut itself off. So now I'm thinking it's not getting enough power, and so i swap batteries and redo the main connections.
So we try again couple days ago and we found no spark. There was nothing obviously malfunctional in the electrical, so the suggestion at the time was to swap the power pack.
So I'm at it again today, doing all the things the internet forums have recommended. I've cleaned every connection and checked every wire, which all seem fairly good. The wires from power pack to coils were a bit corroded so I cleaned them up, and any others in the vicinity that looked suspect. I push the little button where the lanyard kill switch should be and turn the key and bang! away she goes but I didn't have the water on, so I turn it off again, hook up the water and... same old problem, it will turn over but as soon as 1 cylinder caught it would shut off.
So then I took apart the ignition to remove the kill switch and find that that ground has already been isolated. So I cleaned the ignition switch terminals and try it again, and again it fires up, this time for about 5 seconds with quite intermittent strokes, then dies. And now it's back to not starting.
So now I'm hoping some advice will save me some time and headaches. The next step for me is to charge the batteries, hook them up in parallel and see if a little extra juice and those cleaned connections produce a decent spark. I'm still suspecting some funny business in the igniton/kill switch area, but I'm open to any ideas.
Cheers,
So, engine trouble started last year after I put some old gas in on a run back from the fishing hole. I figured I'd fouled the carb and it needed a little cleaner. I had to leave the boat for a while, and then my dad and his friend put some time in and got it going but it was unclear what they did, aside from altering my idle speed and "whacking the power pack a couple times."
So I started it up when I wintered it last fall and it went just fine after a couple turns of the key.
Fast forward to last month, when I try to start it and there's only a brief bang before the whole thing shuts down. As soon as 1 cylinder caught the whole thing seemed to shut itself off. So now I'm thinking it's not getting enough power, and so i swap batteries and redo the main connections.
So we try again couple days ago and we found no spark. There was nothing obviously malfunctional in the electrical, so the suggestion at the time was to swap the power pack.
So I'm at it again today, doing all the things the internet forums have recommended. I've cleaned every connection and checked every wire, which all seem fairly good. The wires from power pack to coils were a bit corroded so I cleaned them up, and any others in the vicinity that looked suspect. I push the little button where the lanyard kill switch should be and turn the key and bang! away she goes but I didn't have the water on, so I turn it off again, hook up the water and... same old problem, it will turn over but as soon as 1 cylinder caught it would shut off.
So then I took apart the ignition to remove the kill switch and find that that ground has already been isolated. So I cleaned the ignition switch terminals and try it again, and again it fires up, this time for about 5 seconds with quite intermittent strokes, then dies. And now it's back to not starting.
So now I'm hoping some advice will save me some time and headaches. The next step for me is to charge the batteries, hook them up in parallel and see if a little extra juice and those cleaned connections produce a decent spark. I'm still suspecting some funny business in the igniton/kill switch area, but I'm open to any ideas.
Cheers,
