1970 Evinrude 85hp motor no spark past coil

Grim001

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Sep 26, 2013
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I have tried a few things and I'm still not getting a spark pasted the coil. here is what I have done. I've done all the test for the starter system, good to go. Replaced the amplifier, which came with a new coil. What he tests have shown. The amplifier is good , I get power to amplifier (12v) and I get around 180v when I turn on ignition, then I get 250v when cranking, but I get nothing out of the coil, it is almost like it is grounded. I tried the new coil and the old coil both do the same thing.
Anyone have a good test for the coil, maybe both are bad? If they are good any ideas why it is not going past coil. One other thing to verify is the wiring for coil. The old coil has a ground wire and a blue wire (that is where I get 180v/250v from) plus wire to the rotor assembly . The new coil just has a blue wire but a large metal tab for ground (at the mounting bolt) and same wire to rotor assembly.

Thanks for any help...its got me scratching my head.
 

Grim001

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Sep 26, 2013
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Update: with a meter I got 0 to .1 ohms across power lead and ground and I get 266 ohms across power lead and rotor plug, same if I do ground and rotor plug. I don't think I should get 0 across the ground and power lead.
 
Last edited:

F_R

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Jul 7, 2006
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Are you testing for spark from the coil before it gets to the distributor?
 

Grim001

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Sep 26, 2013
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Are you testing for spark from the coil before it gets to the distributor?
Yes, we hold the wire near the engine block to look for a spark nothing. we have also put an inline spark tester and nothing. It seems to get power to coil and then nothing goes any further.
 

Grim001

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Sep 26, 2013
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Clipper circuit in place ?
I am not sure what that is, but I looked online and at the parts diagram., I do have it installed. If it goes bad would it cause this problem, any way to test it? I did notice that I was getting a high pitched sound every now and then from the motor when I turned on ignition, that just started during my last repair attempt.
 

racerone

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Dec 28, 2013
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Some suggest to remove that clipper circuit.----Or bypass it as a test.----Perhaps test the rotor and distributor cap as well.----Your location ?
 

Grim001

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Sep 26, 2013
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Some suggest to remove that clipper circuit.----Or bypass it as a test.----Perhaps test the rotor and distributor cap as well.----Your location ?
In Ga, I'll test the other two as well. Do you know the required ohms for the coil? I need to test both of them as well, my manual doesn't have it..so far as I have found.
 

Grim001

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Sep 26, 2013
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coil testing (mom and pop language).
Thanks for the video, I did the test and I get bad readings, so this coil is toast. It is weird, I got about opposite of what he said should be, the primary coil I had .1 ohms and the secondary coil I had 264 ohms. I'll check the other one and see what it does.
 

oldboat1

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Apr 3, 2002
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believe you need setting of 1K ohms on the resistance scale. Large wire to plug is secondary circuit. Small wire on bottom of coil is primary -- at least I think that's right (kind of counter intuitive). Go by what Penn says. (6-7K ohms on the secondary?)
 

Grim001

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Sep 26, 2013
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Got a new coil, believe the last one I bought and original are bad, going this weekend to install it, hopefully this will do the trick, otherwise ill be back with more updates?
 
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