1963 Evinrude Big Twin with no spark

[sms986]

Hello all,
I am new to the forum and I am currently in the process of building my first outboard. I have been building engines for cars, bikes, and all sorts of things for 7 years now, but I've never done an outboard. I picked up this project from a friend as this was my grandpa's old boat that is now in the hands of a friend. He purchased the motor separately and the seller claimed it ran. Upon simple inspection I found that one cylinder was blown. I rebuilrebuilt the entire engine and am now ready to start it, but guess what, no spark! I have replaced points, set them to 0.020" at full cam lift, replaced coils, had the new coils tested just because, replaced plug wires, set the coils to be flush with the boss on each side, replaced condensers, ensured no side to side or up and down wiggle of the armature plate, confirmed the spark plugs still work, and redone the wiring harness. I currently only have the ignition switch wired to the battery, safety switch, and starter solenoid. When I crank it over, I simply get no spark. To me it seems that I have checked/repaired/replaced anything and everything related to spark and this engine is just begging me to drop it off a bridge. Am I missing something simple? Is there something else I should be checking? Thanks a lot guys.

 

[boobie]

Disconnect the black wires once that come from the points that go to the ignition switch and see what happens.

 

[HighTrim]

...also how are you testing for spark

 

[F_R]

Clean the breaker points. Even new points need to be cleaned, because they often have an invisible non-conductive contamination on the contacts.

 

[sms986]

I have both wires coming from the coil to ignition disconnected and not grounded to anything. I have a block that I thread spark plugs into to check for spark. I just look for the blue spark. I checked the points for continuity, which they have. Is continuity not enough? Thanks.

 

[Crosbyman]

back to basics.... this block ... does it supply ground to the plug bodies with an appropriate wire leading back to the engine ground ???

​with an ohmmeter on the plug booth can you read resistance to ground (5-10 Kohms)

have you checked utube for good videos on how to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga1Cjymj6ms&feature=youtu.be

http://www.leeroysramblings.com/johnson_magneto.htm

lots of good info in here

http://boatinfo.no/lib/johnson/manuals/1922-1964johnson.html#/0

 

[F_R]

I have both wires coming from the coil to ignition disconnected and not grounded to anything. I have a block that I thread spark plugs into to check for spark. I just look for the blue spark. I checked the points for continuity, which they have. Is continuity not enough? Thanks.

It depends on what you call continuity. You need to be checking them on the lowest scale available on your meter. In a perfect world, there would be zero Ohms across the closed points with the coil & condenser disconnected from them. You might be able to live with an Ohm or two, but certainly not a bunch of Ohms. Likewise, with the points open, you should have infinity (no continuity).

 

[sms986]

Yes, the block has ample ground. I use this block to test spark on just about everything. I will check the points for resistance tonight.

 

[oldboat1]

Here's a good instruction video describing what Crosbyman mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT8rk5QWgS0 It's a coil test, but more than that -- can test connectivity from the connector in the plug boot through the wire and secondary coil winding, to ground (mag/timing plate). If you get no resistance reading from the plug connector to the plate, you have no plug-coil-ground connection at the spark plug lead.

 

[Crosbyman]

don't mean to be silly but "this block" is it grounded....to the outboard engine body

 

[sms986]

Yes, it is grounded to the engine block. I have a ground wire from the block booked to one of the accessory bracket bolts on the block. I will check some more tonight and let you guys know what I find.

 

[sms986]

So I've spent my evening with this thing and I've come to no conclusions. I ensured that the point gap was 0.020" on both. I checked secondary windings in the coils from spark plugs wire to armature plate at 8k ohms each. I've checked primary windings at about the same. Secondary seemed a little screwy as I had to kind of scratch the surface of the wire connectors to get a reading. I checked the resistance between points as well and got 0.2 ohms for both. Since the functionality of the "block" seems to be a mystery, I took a spare plug wire and cut the insulation off at both ends. I put one end of the wire around the outer bridge of the plug and the other end bolted to the block. No spark. I am completely stumped at this point.

 

[sms986]

When I say bolted the extra spark plugs wire the block I mean bolted it to the engine, I mean the engine block.

 

[oldboat1]

Might be worth resetting the wire clips in the plug boots -- pointed clip end has to contact the core of the plug wire.

 

[sms986]

When I got the new plug wires, I stripped off about 1cm of insulation on the plug boot side of each wire, and tucked it underneath the clip so that it was wedged between the clip and the wire. I just checked continuity though and from one end of the wire to the clip at the other end I have continuity.

 

[F_R]

So I've spent my evening with this thing and I've come to no conclusions. I ensured that the point gap was 0.020" on both. I checked secondary windings in the coils from spark plugs wire to armature plate at 8k ohms each. I've checked primary windings at about the same. Secondary seemed a little screwy as I had to kind of scratch the surface of the wire connectors to get a reading. I checked the resistance between points as well and got 0.2 ohms for both. Since the functionality of the "block" seems to be a mystery, I took a spare plug wire and cut the insulation off at both ends. I put one end of the wire around the outer bridge of the plug and the other end bolted to the block. No spark. I am completely stumped at this point.

What do you mean when you say the primary windings checked about the same? Surely not 8k? Should be around an Ohm for the primary. But it would be very rare to find a bad primary. And unheard of to find two bad primaries.

Humor me, and clean the points. It can't take that long.

Since you evidently have a meter that will measure less than an Ohm, check the resistance between the armature plate and the screw holding the points & condenser wires to the points, as you slowly turn the shaft. Resistance should swing between about an Ohm to zero Ohms as the points open and close.

All this is assuming you have it wired correctly. Wire coming out of the top of the coil goes to ground. Wire coming out of the bottom of the coil goes to the points---the set of points to the right of the coil.

 

[racerone]

The new plug wires are solid metal core ?

 

[Tim Frank]

In my experience the two most common "gotchas" when the entire mag ignition system has been replaced are:
1) Using the wrong plug wire....needs to be solid wire core.

2) The connection between plug wire and coil. The socket on the coil has a threaded post....proper contact requires the wire to be twisted onto the post.

 

[sms986]

I will clean the points when I am home again tomorrow. The plug wires are solid metal 7mm. The wire coming out of the bottom of the coil...if you are looking straight down at the top of the plate, there coil would be at the 12 position and it's respective condensor at the 3 position, correct?

 

[oldboat1]

Believe that is backwards. Standing behind the motor, looking forwards, the coil closest to you is the rear coil. The condenser and points "belonging" to that coil will be on your right. From the same perspective, the condenser and points for the front coil will be on your left.