kill circuit voltage from power pack??????

thanks in advance for any help. start with some history, got this boat with a 1993 50 horse evenrude and it had no spark so i started testing the ignition and here is what i found. tested the stator and had 1200 ohms resistance on the brown to brown yellow,specs are 500 to 700. had 409 on the orange to orange black, specs are 45-60. knowing that these specs are out i tested the dva output of the stator and had 275 volts on the b to b/y and 12.7 on the o to o/b these numbers are within specs. tested the timer base, tested fine. resistance check on coils showed same numbers on both coils primary and secondary sides .290 on both primaries and .289 on the secondaries.in my expieriance with coils the secondary numbers should be around .6. here is my question when i checked the voltage on the kill circuit which i have read should be no more that two volts at any time, i get voltage readings over 200 volts, i have replaced the power pack and now have spark but still have the voltage on the black/yellow wire coming from the pack and dont want to damage the new power pack without knowing where this voltage is coming from. are the numbers for the coils ok or is the resistance numbers out and causing the problem or the high resistance numbers on the stator the cause of the problem. thanks again for any help

Re: kill circuit voltage from power pack??????

When the engine is running, high voltages is created within the ignition components, including within the kill circuit leading to that Black/Yellow wire... enough voltage to light up ones eye teeth as the saying goes. This is normal and has no doubt been encountered by various boaters when they have the black/yellow wire disconnected from the ignition switch when checking for spark, then grabbing that wire to reattach it.

Been there, done that a few times myself. Ignore this running voltage.

The following is what you are interested in. Black/Yellow wire voltage (Engine NOT running.........

Voltage To Powerpack Failures
(Magneto Capacitance Discharge Systems)
(J. Reeves)

The usual cause of having those type powerpacks fail repeatedly is having a very small of voltage applied to the Black/Yellow wire (Kill Circuit) at the pack. Test as follows.

Disconnect the Black/Yellow wire at the powerpack.

Insert either a ampere meter or a volt meter set to its lowest DC voltage reading between that Black Yellow wire and ground.

With the ignition key in the OFF position, observe the meter reading. Now turn the ignition key to the ON position and again observe the meter reading.

Any reading, movement of the meter needle, even a microvolt, would indicate that battery voltage is being applied to that Black/Yellow wire. If a reading is present, remove the other end of that Black/Yellow from the raised terminal of the ignition switch.

If the reading ceases to exist when the Black/Yellow wire is removed from the ignition switch, replace the switch. If the reading continues to exist, there would be a short of some kind in either the engine or instrument wiring harness.... to determine which, simply unplug the large RED electrical plug at the engine which would eliminate the instrument cable.

Note that the black/yellow wire must not have any other wire attached to it for the following reason!

Keep in mind that any accessory that has 12 volts running to it, especially when turned on, will have voltage flowing thru it and trailering out thru its black ground wire to complete the circuit. If that accessory has it's black ground wire attached to the "M" terminal that the black/yellow wire is attached to.... you will have voltage flowing directly to the powerpack.

Re: kill circuit voltage from power pack??????

Thank you for the answer to what I thought was a problem, makes perfectly good sence that for the ignition switch to ground the pack. the kill circuit has to have voltage to ground, was concerned that what I was seeing was the cause of the last power pack failure and wanted some help understanding what I was seeing thanks again and happy boating

Re: kill circuit voltage from power pack??????

I've been working with electrical circuits, controls and power wiring for 35 years now for a living. I got the worst shock I've ever had when my grounding wire became disconnected at the motor and I touched the throttle control box and the metal steering wheel. It will light you up. Had to sit down for 30 minutes or better.

Re: kill circuit voltage from power pack??????

Getting shock through controls. Checked wires and grounds. Pulled yellow and black wire and shock goes away. Question could start switch be problem or is there a short in the kill switch wire. With key on there is only a small amount of voltage. When motor is running it is a hard shock..