I have had some issues with my 1990 3 cyl 90hp Mercury 2 stroke. I just found that the stator ground wire is cut off 1/4" below the stator and completely missing. What kind of problem, if any, might that cause?
Some background:
I bought this motor 5 months ago. It ran pretty smooth at high RPM. It would misfire about every third rotation anytime it was at or between idle and 2000 RPM. I took it 26 miles out to Catalina, pulled into the harbor for gas, and it died and would not start. the mechanic that had worked on it did a horrible job with diagnosis, although he was happy to replace some parts he thought might be the issue (don't we all have a story like that).
Tonight I replaced the switchbox with a new Sierra one, and got the flywheel off to inspect the stator and wires and noticed the black ground wire was cut off and there was no ground wire at all. :facepalm: The engine has 130-135 compression on all three cyls. The fuel pump and carbs have all been rebuilt, and there is a new fuel filter. I did a good job with the link and sync doing a step by step from the manual. Two things I fixed during that are that the fuel lines for the elec enricher were reversed, so I switched them back. Another thing is that the cam roller was about 1/2 inch out so linkage was all out of wack, including the WOT stop. I used a timing light to get the timing in the right place.
So any experiences or theories on what not grounding the stator might do?
Some background:
I bought this motor 5 months ago. It ran pretty smooth at high RPM. It would misfire about every third rotation anytime it was at or between idle and 2000 RPM. I took it 26 miles out to Catalina, pulled into the harbor for gas, and it died and would not start. the mechanic that had worked on it did a horrible job with diagnosis, although he was happy to replace some parts he thought might be the issue (don't we all have a story like that).
Tonight I replaced the switchbox with a new Sierra one, and got the flywheel off to inspect the stator and wires and noticed the black ground wire was cut off and there was no ground wire at all. :facepalm: The engine has 130-135 compression on all three cyls. The fuel pump and carbs have all been rebuilt, and there is a new fuel filter. I did a good job with the link and sync doing a step by step from the manual. Two things I fixed during that are that the fuel lines for the elec enricher were reversed, so I switched them back. Another thing is that the cam roller was about 1/2 inch out so linkage was all out of wack, including the WOT stop. I used a timing light to get the timing in the right place.
So any experiences or theories on what not grounding the stator might do?
