1995 E vinrude 40hp timing change?

I was having problems with the battery chargine and I installed a new rectifier on the engine. Once I did that the engine started right up and I was able to cruise around the lake at a variety of speeds for about 45 minutes total. This was all in hope to charge the battery.
While I was at full cruising speed the the engine RPM started to drop and then proceded to stall. After it stalled I could only get it to start with the throttle all the way forward.

I have done some testing on it and it does have spark. When rotating the flywheel with the cyl 1 (top) plug out, the TDC mark lines up with the timing mark on the engine. When using a timing light on cyl 1 the flywheel 0 deg mark shows up at about 2 O'clock on the starboard side on the engine, That leads me to believe that the timing has severly retarded itself and I am not sure how this could be.
The linkage all looks good, And I can get it started if I have the throttle lever all the way forward and then can manually advance the timing to meet the engines needs.
　
Make: evinrude
Model: e40TLEOD
SN: G03798924
HP: 40
Year: 1995

The timing on these engines normally does not go out of adjustment for the life of the engine.-Be very careful and use a factory manual if you want / need to make changes.---------Have you checked cooling system ?----Have you verified that oil injection is working properly.

I have not checked the oil injection. How would that affect the timing. Or I guess how would it affect the running of the engine? How to check?

racerone said:

The timing on these engines normally does not go out of adjustment for the life of the engine.-Be very careful and use a factory manual if you want / need to make changes.---------Have you checked cooling system ?----Have you verified that oil injection is working properly.

Click to expand...

What is your motor doing / not doing and why do you suspect the timing is not correct.------------Unless fooled with the timing does not give any trouble on these motors.--------The one thing that will throw timing out is a sheared flywheel key !

When I was trying to figure out what was wrong and why it wouldn't start. I put a timing light on the plug wires to see what was going on. Since the engine was not running, all I could do was get a spark pulse while cranking the engine. I was not seeing the timing indicators that are stamped on the flywheel match up with the indicator mark on the power head. I then moved the timing light around the flywheel until I located the marks, which were at about 2 oclock from the indicator (12 oclock front of the engine) (with 6 oclock being the rear of the engine). This makes me think that the timing is way off.

I haven't removed the flywheel yet, From what I can see on the flywheel the 0 deg (as stamped on the flywheel) matches up with the TDC of cyl 1. Which is exactly what I would expect, That tends to make me think that the flywheel key is still in good shape. Also I can see the magnets if I look under the flywheel and rotate engine by hand. They all seem to be attached and in place. I may try to pull the flywheel tomorrow eve and see if it looks like there is any damage or if anything looks strange.


This engine has the S.L.O.W safety feature on it as well as oil injection, Could any of those circuits do anything to make the engine run like this?