I get the feeling these motors all have fragile black boxes.
I figured, rather than repair something problem prone, I could give it a permanent fix, with commonly available and more affordable components.
So do you have a 1973 motor ????-----------That ignition system on a 73 is very reliable !!!--The parts are properly priced too.--Not sure where you get the information about them being fragile on 73 and newer.--------Model # of your motor ?-------A lot of times I buy these motors for parts and dealers do not bother taking the " black boxes " off them.----Reason being that there is not much call for them !!!
115esl73m.
I assumed that these ignition systems were unreliable, first time I try to fire the motor, no spark, and every time no spark, unplug the rectifier, red connector, black and yellow wire, etc , still no spark...
And the rest of the motor is very clean.
If you have a bad battery / bad starter / bad battery cables it will not crank fast enuff to get spark from the magneto.-----Start with checking those items.
What else have you already done on this motor ???-------------They are elegantly simple to trouble shoot and repair.----Go the ---CDI ignition ----that website will lead you thru all the steps.
Re-read post #9. The website for CDI is: cdielectronics.com They have some excellent ignition troubleshooting information-in some cases better than the original service manuals (on these really early crossflows.)
