dead Johnson 150

I have a 2000 Johnson 150 that I am having trouble with. It was in use (at idle) and died. It had been running for an hour or so previously, pulling a tube... The guy driving tried to re-crank it, a number of times, but it would not start. I swam out to the boat and we pulled the plugs, which were wet by then, and cleaned & dried them. He cranked it and played with the timing advance device, and got it close to firing a number of times. It never quite caught so we swam it in. Since then we have tested he plugs and get no fire to them. We have checked the fuse and it looks to be good. We have swapped it with the spare, and still no fire. My brother in law cranked it until he burned up the ignition switch. New one is installed. ( And fuse, on top of engine, checked after installation). Still no spark. What do I do next to figure this out?<br /><br />Other data: engine has 40-50 total run time. It is 4 years old, but we got it from a guy who did not run it often. We have drained the gas tank and replaced the gas lines and filter. We are getting gas, and oil- but no spark... I have a separate issue with the oil system, but we can handle that when we get this beast running again.<br />Your assistance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.<br /><br />MGM

Re: dead Johnson 150

did you check out the safety and neutral kill switch?<br />may be a short in the controls.<br /><br />other than that if you dont have any spark at all<br />on all sparkplugs i suspect the triggercoil.<br /><br />bud check out the easy stuff first

Re: dead Johnson 150

It should not be the neutral switch, because I AM cranking, just no spark. What does the safety switch do and where might I locate this? ( Yes, I am looking for a manual on it. I just got it a month ago, and do not own one- yet!)

Re: dead Johnson 150

mgmetal,you really need to get the manual and equipment to go further.If spark won't jump 7/16 inch when cranking,things need to be checked.<br /><br />When I check these,it usually is the power pack. BUT because of the price,you need to test to be sure it's not a stator or timerbase,or even a kill switch problem.<br /><br />Also BRP(OMC) seems to have special test harnesses available to the the motor to ignition switch wiring.<br /><br />DHP

Re: dead Johnson 150

The kill (safety) switch does what it says, kill the power to the engine.<br />If its broken you will never get any spark on the plugs.<br />But you can still crank the engine.

Re: dead Johnson 150

After reading the posted responses, I went out and tried the motor again. I am getting a spark- a faint one. I wonder if there could be a corroded connection. It was pouring rain the weekend that the problem developed, and the boat was open over night. They had to drain it before launch. I think I will clean and lube some connections, starting at the new ign switch, and going backward to see what I can see.