No Fire! Please help...

johnrolf

Seaman
Joined
Jul 21, 2004
Messages
53
1972 20hp Mercury Thunderbolt ignition (pull start) engine is firing only on the top cylinder. I've swapped the coil wires to check for a bad coil and that's not the problem. Both coils are good. Spark plugs and wires are good also. I tried pulling the flywheel and trace the bad wire(green)down. I can see where it goes in, but can't get the flywheel off to see where it connects to. Where is the power pack on the engine, or does it not have one? What could be causing the engine to fire on 1 cylinder only? Both spark plug wires are producing spark, even the one that doesn't fire the bottom cylinder. IT shocked me when I had the motor running.
 

BF

Lieutenant
Joined
Apr 8, 2003
Messages
1,489
Re: No Fire! Please help...

so, I can't tell from your post... the bottom plug IS sparking?? You need compression, spark and fuel/air mixture to run. How's the compression on that cylinder? If compression is good and you have good spark (not intermittent or weak spark), it could be an air leak at the crank seal or somewhere on bottom of the intake that is causing a too-lean mixture on the bottom jug. (?) Just a guess. <br /><br />Just 'cause it's not running off the bottom cylinder doesn't mean that it's necessarily because of lack of spark (but that can often be the case).<br /><br />good luck.<br /><br />Brent
 
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