1999 Johnson 130hp J130PLEED won't start?

[thyNemesis]

1999 Johnson 130hp J130PLEED.

The other day I was out on the water, running around without issues, decided to stop at the local swim area to relax, time to head back in, started up and when I went to get up on plane, engine seemed very sluggish and stalled but I did managed to run the engine at idle but sounded very ruff. Everytime I tried to power up engine would run for a sec than bogged down and stalled, limped back towards port under power but when I got closer to port the engine stopped running all together and I had to limp back the rest of the way to port with the trolling motor.

I got her home and looked things over, checked fuel for water, none. Made sure my KILL lanyard was attached. Thought it might be a fuel starvation problem, hook up an external fuel tank and engine would spin but not firing. I tried spraying some engine starting fluid to isolate either a fuel issue or a spark issue. Engine would not fire at all using the starting fluid. Pulled each plug seperatly and checked for spark against the case, each one prduced a spark.

Now I am at a stand still. I have fuel and spark but engine won't fire, not even a weak attempt at firing, nada.

Any ideas on where to look next?

Thanks
Jeff in Florida.

 

[jakedaawg]

Compression test, Open air gap spark test. The spark check you did with the plugs does not tell us the quality or "strength" of the spark. Each cylinder needs spark to jump a 7/16" gap. Report back those results and someone will help you decide what to do next.

 

[Chris1956]

If the motor will not fire with starting fluid, either the compression is real low or there is no spark. Be careful with that ether. You can cause a no lube condition in the motor, or more likely, the engine will catch on fire.......

I would start with a compression test, then a spark test as was suggested.

 

[thyNemesis]

Good Morning,


Pulled each plug and measured the gap, each plug was .039, installed new plugs that are gapped at .030, Champion QL78YC
Tried starting the engine, seemed to want to start, more so than yesterday and I had misty type smoke coming from the exhaust.

Checked the air-gap with a tester set to 7/16 gap, had spark jumping the gap.
Compression check: 143, 145, 140, 142

Tried using the starting fluid again and that didn't work either.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Chris1956]

Well, that is enough compression and enough spark. That leaves the ign timing as a suspect. Time to get a timing light and see what it is set to.