nissan 40hp problems

[oregonsportsman]

I bought a 1988 40hp nissan outboard less than 1 week ago, and today when i took it out to go crabbing it had a lot of difficulty starting and once you finally did get it started it would generally die as soon as you lowered the start lever and if not it would certainly die if you tried to shift into either forward or reverse gear. Does anybody have any idea at all what the problem may be. please help. thank you much.<br />-eric

 

[DJ]

Re: nissan 40hp problems

oregonsportsman,<br /><br />You are probably running on only one cylinder.<br /><br />Three things to check first. <br /><br />1. Compression-even on all cylinders?<br /><br />2. Spark, on all cylinders?<br /><br />3. Spark plugs. Compare the plugs on each cylinder. Do they look similar?

 

[oregonsportsman]

Re: nissan 40hp problems

thank you for the ideas, how does one go about checking for the spark? i know how to locate and remove the spark plugs and they looked similar and quite clean but i don't know a method of how to check for the spark itself.<br />thanks.<br />eric