1989 force 85hp 2 of 3 cylinders won't fire

[Jaketlowe]

New to this forum. Hopefully someone can help. Received an 18ft cajun bass boat with a 1989 force 85hp outboard in a trade.. I had a mobile marine mechanic come work on it and he put in a new starter, water pump, and rebuilt the carbs. It started fine before they touched it, now I am only getting spark to cylinder 2. He said I need a new cdi but I don't think he had any idea what he was doing. could it be a bad stator? any help at all I would really appreciate...

 

[MostlyHrmlss]

Re: 1989 force 85hp 2 of 3 cylinders won't fire

I'm assuming your ignition is like my 1985 85hp, which has two CDI boxes and three coil units. From what I've been able to gather, one CDI box handles two cylinders, and has a "daisy chain" wire to feed the other CDI box timing info, which fires the third cylinder. I would swap coil units between cylinders and see if the spark follows the coil or the CDI. You might be able to do this without dismounting them, just swapping wires about, but I've never tried.

 

[Jaketlowe]

Re: 1989 force 85hp 2 of 3 cylinders won't fire

cylinder 2 is running from the same cdi box as cylinder 1, and cylinder 2 fires. So, either the coils on 1 or 3 are bad which doesn't make sense for both to go bad at the same time or the stator isn't giving off enough voltage. I don't know too much just the basics. I will try swapping the coils though it can't hurt. Thankx for your help

 

[MostlyHrmlss]

Re: 1989 force 85hp 2 of 3 cylinders won't fire

What if the coil for #1 just happened to go bad at the same time that the timing wire between the CDIs got knocked loose? Stranger things have happened to me, so I try not to discount the obvious. Swapping the coils will inadvertantly cause you to look at the wiring, and you might spot something amiss.