No Spark on One Cylinder - HELP!!!!!!!!

[capsnumber1]

Hey everyone, I have a 1989 Evinrude 120 HP 2 stroke VRO. It has not been running well at idle so I had some tests run on it. Mechanic told me the bottom 2 cylinders had no spark. We replaced the powerpack and that did nothing. He says there is good compression in all cylinders and the problem is electrical. He says the only way to narrow it down is to start to replace other parts - which as you know can get quite expensive. Anyone have any idea what could be causing this? Thanks in advance!!

 

[JB]

Re: No Spark on One Cylinder - HELP!!!!!!!!

Replacing parts in the hope that that will fix something is the stupidest and most expensive troubleshooting "method" known to man, caps.

Take it to a wrench that knows how to troubleshoot and/or is not trying to get his whole winter of profit from one customer.

 

[funpilot]

Re: No Spark on One Cylinder - HELP!!!!!!!!

Is it one cylinder or two cylinders which aren't firing?

It is relatively inexpensive to swap some parts from cylinder to cylinder to see if the trouble follows the swapped parts or stays with the cylinder. I'm thinking spark plugs, wires, and coils.

Have you tried a spark tester? This is the one I use. You can see it jumping the 7/16 inch gap on #1.

fp

 

[clint]

No Spark on One Cylinder - HELP!!!!!!!!

Sounds like a Greedy Mechanic as funpilot stated. I would do a simple spark plug test, but who know maybe what wires he might of crossed on you. Go thru the simple spark test and let us know what clylinder's arent firing. Good Luck!
Clint :$

 

[capsnumber1]

Re: No Spark on One Cylinder - HELP!!!!!!!!

This is a friend of mine who is a mechanic at a local marina. He is not specialized in Evinrude and is not charging me for his services. Plus I am buying the parts from West Marine - who we both work for. He is in no way profiting from me.

I took him my service manual tonight and he is going to run some tests on it tomorrow. I do not have the boat back yet so I can't run any tests myself.

It is actually the bottom two cylinders that are not firing. The top two cylinders are firing. He said he knows it is not the coils because he switched them out with the top and the top continued to fire but the bottom didn't.

What is really interesting is that when he installed the new powerpack from Sierra only 1 out of 4 cylinders fired - he put the original back on and we are now back up to the top two.

 

[capsnumber1]

Re: No Spark on One Cylinder - HELP!!!!!!!!

This is a friend of mine who is a mechanic at a local marina. He is not specialized in Evinrude and is not charging me for his services. Plus I am buying the parts from West Marine - who we both work for. He is in no way profiting from me.

I took him my service manual tonight and he is going to run some tests on it tomorrow. I do not have the boat back yet so I can't run any tests myself.

It is actually the bottom two cylinders that are not firing. The top two cylinders are firing. He said he knows it is not the coils because he switched them out with the top and the top continued to fire but the bottom didn't.

What is really interesting is that when he installed the new powerpack from Sierra only 1 out of 4 cylinders fired - he put the original back on and we are now back up to the top two.

 

[capsnumber1]

Re: No Spark on One Cylinder - HELP!!!!!!!!

He thinks the problem is probably the stator, which is unforntunate because it costs $200. He is going to run the test that it has in my service manual on it tomorrow. My question is does that sound right? From what I read it sounds like the stator provides the spark for all the plugs. If it is bad then wouldn't all the plugs not spark?