I traded for this 1978-79 Sears Eska 9.9 gamefisher about 5yrs ago. It was a real strong engine and started easy. Then one day we tried to start it and nothing. I'm pretty knowlegeable about small engines and determined there was no spark on the top cylinder. After, alot of reseach and reading forums I found out they don't make the stators for this model and if I wanted a rebuilt one I would have to shell out 250 dollars and send them mine to repair or something like that! I thought to myself "That was high and about what the outboard was worth!" That was about 4yrs ago and it sat around collecting dust and taking up space untill just about 1yr ago! I decided to see if I could find a new stator on the net or any Ideas how to fix it, or tear it down and sell for parts to get back alittle for my trade. I figured there might be a rebuild that i could do or a external CDI unit i could attach to get a spark again for cheaper than 250.. After searching awhile found out there was a cdi kit from altronics that you could buy, or u can purchase each part from another electronics store like digitkey with the parts list they gave you for cheaper. So i bought all the parts to make the circut responsible for generating the spark. After getting the parts in the mail for about 15 dollars i decided it was going to be alot of work that i wasnt really wanting to do. I thought there must be a better way with fewer parts! Thats when I found that a capacitor and a diode are the two main parts that fail in these older eska's. The article talked about how the gasoline was not as powerfull back then as todays higher octanes and they run hotter with todays fuels which could be why the engine cooks these parts! It went on to show how to remove the insulation over the cdis on the timing plate and solder in wires from the triggers to a small external pack containing the capacitor & diode. It also said showed how to solder a jumper over the old capacitor & diode and replace the cdi insulation with a heat resistant silicone. This seemed the perfect thing to try and I already had the two parts I needed. So I did the surgery on the cdi's and what do you know i have spark nice and blue on both plugs. The crazy thing is that it still doesn't start! It has let off a big bang like a shot gun going off kinda like a back fire but its only done that a couple of times. I've tried gas in the spark plug holes and starting fluid but no luck! I thought it might be a timing issue with when it's suppose to fire for each cylinder but don't really know how to make sure without the operation manual they say tells ya! Anyone know how to get it close manually? I was thinking it maybe a weak spark? But, it looks like its plenty! Anyone with any other ideas im all for it or it's parts will be on ebay shortly! Thanks. Wesley