1958 evinrude 50 hp starflite no spark

steamking123

Seaman Apprentice
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Aug 8, 2009
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42
Just finished rewiring this boat. I also replace the coil. I doubled check my installation twice to make sure I didn't do anything wrong. I turn it over and I get no spark. non of the spark plugs are getting spark. it turns over great with the new battery. The primary lead wire on coil goes hot when I crank it from ignition. I am pretty sure coil is getting good ground because I firmly connected second primary lead wire underneath the clip that holds the coil in the magneto casing. ideas/?
 

Chris1956

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Mar 25, 2004
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27,036
Re: 1958 evinrude 50 hp starflite no spark

That is a magneto ignition. The wire on the outside of the distributor body is connected to the point wire and is grounded to kill the ignition. Are both sets of points clean and properly grapped? Is the condenser good?

Do not put voltage on the coil, or you may burn it up.
 

F_R

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Jul 7, 2006
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28,195
Re: 1958 evinrude 50 hp starflite no spark

That is a magneto ignition. The wire on the outside of the distributor body is connected to the point wire and is grounded to kill the ignition. Are both sets of points clean and properly grapped? Is the condenser good?

Do not put voltage on the coil, or you may burn it up.

AMEN. "Goes hot when you crank it" says that you have the wrong kind of ignition switch and are feeding 12 volts to the coil. That's bad. However, if you are merely saying you see low voltage pulses when cranking and not voltage as soon as you turn the key on, that's different and to be expected.

Disconnect that primary wire that goes forward to the switch and see if you then have spark when cranking. You should. The wire turns it off, not on.
 

steamking123

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Re: 1958 evinrude 50 hp starflite no spark

When I say "it goes hot when cranking" I mean when turning the engine over I am getting low voltage on the coil primary lead (bolt that comes out of the magneto casing). when key is just on and not cranking not voltage goes to the coil.

I also ordered insulators to go on top and bottom of the magneto but sea way messed the order up and I didn't receive it with the rest of the parts. in the manual it says its optional. as of right now there is no insulators on the magneto. Could this be the problem? or should it be working.

I was also looking at the manual last night, and it raised a question for me. Is there suppose to be 2 clips that hold the magneto in place. I only have one clip (Where coil is grounded) Do I need another one?


The condenser looks like its in good repair but I have not done any repair work. How do I test if the condenser is good?
 

F_R

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28,195
Re: 1958 evinrude 50 hp starflite no spark

When I say "it goes hot when cranking" I mean when turning the engine over I am getting low voltage on the coil primary lead (bolt that comes out of the magneto casing). when key is just on and not cranking not voltage goes to the coil.

I also ordered insulators to go on top and bottom of the magneto but sea way messed the order up and I didn't receive it with the rest of the parts. in the manual it says its optional. as of right now there is no insulators on the magneto. Could this be the problem? or should it be working.

I was also looking at the manual last night, and it raised a question for me. Is there suppose to be 2 clips that hold the magneto in place. I only have one clip (Where coil is grounded) Do I need another one?


The condenser looks like its in good repair but I have not done any repair work. How do I test if the condenser is good?

Oh, ok now I remember discussing this before on another thread. There are supposed to be two clips, one on each end of the coil. Yes, the coil has to be held in firm contact with the magnets in the housing. The original coils had a nasty habit of breaking down and the spark jumping through the insulation on the ends. The insulators are to prevent that.

It seems like this magneto has been discussed in depth already. Have you checked to see if you have spark off the coil button? Have you checked for good contact across the breaker points? Are they both set at .020"?. Do you have good electrical continuity where the stud goes through the side? Is it not grounded to the case (good insulators)? If you are in doubt about the condenser, simply replace the darn thing. Or buy an expensive tester.

There really isn't much more to say that hasn't already been said. If the parts are good and assembled right it will have great spark.
 

steamking123

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Re: 1958 evinrude 50 hp starflite no spark

ok so I wanted to make sure that the primary wire from the magneto was not running power to the coil. so I removed it, and put a test light to it, while cranking. it has power to it while cranking. Which is to be expected cause it is hooked up to the ignition switch under the bolt that says ignition. (is this right?) But to my surprise while I was testing this wire, the ground wire that runs from the ingition switch (center bolt) to the power head bolt started smoking and before I could get the battery disconnected this black wire thoroughly melted and nearly started on fire. So now I am convinced that I have or had something hooked up wrong.
My starter switch is not original and has the following 4 bolts. it is shaped in a triangle with three bolts on the outside and one bolt right in the middle. the 3 outer bolts are labeled as follows. Batt, Ignit, and Acc. The bolt right in the middle is unlabeled but I assumed it was ground. I have one white wire that runs from the starter solenoid to the Ignition bolt on starter switch. I have a green wire that runs from the battery to the switch place and then is split between the choke switch and the battery bolt on starter switch. Then I have a black wire that is grounded on the power head bolt and runs through the junction box and connects to the starter switch center bolt. this was the wire that melted right before my eyes. The 4th wire runs from the ignition bolt to the magneto. This was the wire that was disconnected and being tested while ground wire melted.

So what did I do wrong? or maybe better what didn't I do wrong. lol. To clarify, two wires were hooked up to the ignition bolt on the starter switch. one white wire that ran to the starter solenoid, and the other wire ran to the magneto. (until I disconnected it to test it.) I have the feeling this was incorrect.
So I might have to retract my statement from the previous notes above about not feeding power into my magneto. I was feeding power into the primary lead on the magneto from the ignition switch (ingition bolt that was shared with the wire that ran to the starter solenoid.) Did I burn up the magneto? Do i have the right kind of starter switch and if so how do I hook it up correctly. Any other obvious errors that you can see?
 

F_R

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Messages
28,195
Re: 1958 evinrude 50 hp starflite no spark

ok so I wanted to make sure that the primary wire from the magneto was not running power to the coil. so I removed it, and put a test light to it, while cranking. it has power to it while cranking. Which is to be expected cause it is hooked up to the ignition switch under the bolt that says ignition. (is this right?) But to my surprise while I was testing this wire, the ground wire that runs from the ingition switch (center bolt) to the power head bolt started smoking and before I could get the battery disconnected this black wire thoroughly melted and nearly started on fire. So now I am convinced that I have or had something hooked up wrong.
My starter switch is not original and has the following 4 bolts. it is shaped in a triangle with three bolts on the outside and one bolt right in the middle. the 3 outer bolts are labeled as follows. Batt, Ignit, and Acc. The bolt right in the middle is unlabeled but I assumed it was ground. I have one white wire that runs from the starter solenoid to the Ignition bolt on starter switch. I have a green wire that runs from the battery to the switch place and then is split between the choke switch and the battery bolt on starter switch. Then I have a black wire that is grounded on the power head bolt and runs through the junction box and connects to the starter switch center bolt. this was the wire that melted right before my eyes. The 4th wire runs from the ignition bolt to the magneto. This was the wire that was disconnected and being tested while ground wire melted.

So what did I do wrong? or maybe better what didn't I do wrong. lol. To clarify, two wires were hooked up to the ignition bolt on the starter switch. one white wire that ran to the starter solenoid, and the other wire ran to the magneto. (until I disconnected it to test it.) I have the feeling this was incorrect.
So I might have to retract my statement from the previous notes above about not feeding power into my magneto. I was feeding power into the primary lead on the magneto from the ignition switch (ingition bolt that was shared with the wire that ran to the starter solenoid.) Did I burn up the magneto? Do i have the right kind of starter switch and if so how do I hook it up correctly. Any other obvious errors that you can see?

You might as well back off and begin again by getting the correct igniton switch. You have one for battery ignition, not magneto ignition.

After you get the correct switch, wire it according to the diagram. Did I send you the wiring diagram? I don't remember.
 

pegs11

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Aug 27, 2009
Messages
37
Re: 1958 evinrude 50 hp starflite no spark

I'm having problems with my ignition as well. Its a 100 hp evinrude starflite. I found a crack/burned area on what I think is the distributor. This is as close as I have come to a thread similiar to my problem. Almost everything else has been replaced except for the distributor. But I haven't had any luck finding one to replace the crack one. any ideas?

The part is inside of the magnito wiring assembly and all of the spark plugs attach to it. There is a dognut looking think inside of it. It has a burn/discolored spot on top. On the under side it is clearly cracked.
 

F_R

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28,195
Re: 1958 evinrude 50 hp starflite no spark

I'm having problems with my ignition as well. Its a 100 hp evinrude starflite. I found a crack/burned area on what I think is the distributor. But I this is as close as I have come to a thread similiar to my problem. Almost everything else has been replaced except for the distributor. But I haven't had any luck finding one to replace the crack one. any ideas?

You are taken seriously, and we will help you.

Your 100hp is light years different than this 50. Please tell us what year your 100 is and do it in starting a new thread. Adding onto an existing subject gets everybody confused.
 

challengeseeker

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Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4
Re: 1958 evinrude 50 hp starflite no spark

Just finished rewiring this boat. I also replace the coil. I doubled check my installation twice to make sure I didn't do anything wrong. I turn it over and I get no spark. non of the spark plugs are getting spark. it turns over great with the new battery. The primary lead wire on coil goes hot when I crank it from ignition. I am pretty sure coil is getting good ground because I firmly connected second primary lead wire underneath the clip that holds the coil in the magneto casing. ideas/?

I have a 58 starflite taking up space in my garage if your interested for parts currently on 60's ski boat w/ trailer believe it just needs coil/points ran a few years ago(Illinois)
 
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