I am new to boats and was recently given a 1970 (I think) 20HP Johnson (20R-70E), electric start motor, and a 14ft aluminum boat. The boat and motor have been sitting outside for the past several years, so there was some corrosion and wiring issues.
I replaced the starting solenoid, battery cables and all of the wiring ends going to the ignition switch. The ignition switch is a 3-prong ignition switch and will turn over the boat motor, but the motor does not start and there is no spark. After further investigation, I believe the key switch may be bad. The key switch is wired as follows:
1) There is a ground wire that goes to one of the leads going to my magneto.
2) There is a 12V feed coming from the solenoid (power at all times)
3) There is a wire going to a small post of the solenoid (this is connected with #2 to turn over the starter when the key is in "start" position)
4) There is a wire going to the other lead of my magneto..... I would expect this to connect to #2 when the key it in "run" or "start" position, but it does not.
It appears to me that the switch is faulty because I would expect it to connect power to the magneto in run position. Is that not how it is supposed to work? I tried jumpering #2 and #4 and it sparks and still won't start. Maybe I am thinking about this all wrong.... is the lead to the magneto supposed to have power? I have all of the wires hooked up how they were, but not certain that they were hooked up correctly in the first place.
Any information that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
I replaced the starting solenoid, battery cables and all of the wiring ends going to the ignition switch. The ignition switch is a 3-prong ignition switch and will turn over the boat motor, but the motor does not start and there is no spark. After further investigation, I believe the key switch may be bad. The key switch is wired as follows:
1) There is a ground wire that goes to one of the leads going to my magneto.
2) There is a 12V feed coming from the solenoid (power at all times)
3) There is a wire going to a small post of the solenoid (this is connected with #2 to turn over the starter when the key is in "start" position)
4) There is a wire going to the other lead of my magneto..... I would expect this to connect to #2 when the key it in "run" or "start" position, but it does not.
It appears to me that the switch is faulty because I would expect it to connect power to the magneto in run position. Is that not how it is supposed to work? I tried jumpering #2 and #4 and it sparks and still won't start. Maybe I am thinking about this all wrong.... is the lead to the magneto supposed to have power? I have all of the wires hooked up how they were, but not certain that they were hooked up correctly in the first place.
Any information that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.