ignition issue

upon first starting engine, engine is rough. noticed 2 cylinders have an erratic signal. it tends to clear at higher speed and after idling a little. I know it has a quickstart feature. oh 1995 200hp 2stroke ocean pro series. hope not timer base or power pack. hoping just possible spark leakage or faulty coil. any ideas how to eliminate some of the possibilities?

Are you using the recommended spark plugs... and the proper gap setting? What do the electrodes look like?

Remove all spark plugs and check the compression. What is the PSI reading of all individual cylinders?

Cold engine... All spark plugs removed... Check the spark. The spark should jump a 7/16" gap with a strong blue lightning like flame... a real SNAP! Does it?

(Spark Tester - Home Made)
(J. Reeves)

You can use a medium size philips screwdriver (#2 I believe) inserted into the spark plug boot spring connector, then hold the screwdriver shank approximately 7/16" away from the block to check the spark or build the following:

A spark tester can be made with a piece of 1x4 or 1x6, drive a few finishing nails through it, then bend the pointed ends at a right angle. You can then adjust the gap by simply twisting the nail(s). Solder a spark plug wire to one which you can connect to the spark plug boots, and a ground wire of some kind to the other to connect to the powerhead somewhere. Use small alligator clips on the other end of the wires to connect to ground and to the spark plug connector that exists inside of the rubber plug boot.

Using the above, one could easily build a spark tester whereas they could connect 2, 4, 6, or 8 cylinders all at one time. The ground nail being straight up, the others being bent, aimed at the ground nail. A typical 4 cylinder tester follows:

..........X1..........X2

.................X..(grd)

..........X3..........X4

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will check all these, just rebuilt engine, broke in for ten hours. it runs good after intial warm up and start. just the dancing on the flywheel when using timing light.

You will not get a steady timing light indication when the engine is still in QS mode. Immediately after QS drops out, the timing marks will be steady.

I thought it was quickstart. only 2 and 4 cyl seem to dance though. dous clear up after idle and warm up

Read what I said again.....I did NOT say that QS was your problem.
I described what the timing light will show when QS is active.

Regarding QS.....At startup, every time the engine is started, QS goes active for about 10 seconds.
The engine will race up in it's idle speed a bit...maybe up to about 1100-1200 or so, and when QS drops out, the idle slows, stabilizes, and the engine steadies out
at (hopefully) about 750 in the water.

The point when QS drops out is very noticeable. Are you seeing the above behavior? Can you detect when QS drops out?

If it never drops out, you must ensure the throttle link and sync is correct. You may have it idling so high that you cannot detect when QS is active or not.
Again, if it never drops out, and linkages are right, then a QS failure could be caused by either the pack OR the timerbase.

After it clears up, as you state that it does, please post up the actual idle timing value and the associated RPM. You should see about 750, and about 4*ATDC if all is right.
Check timing on #1 at time of immediate startup. It should be dancing around as you describe for about ten seconds, then steady right up when QS drops out.

If you PM me an email address, I can send you a PDF of the chapter in the Evinrude manual on the ignition system.

yeah, it drops down to 650 to 700. I have the manual. I thought it would affect all the plugs. I think I may have problem with #6 plug wire. touched it while running and got a good jolt. running pretty good now. made it out there for a couple 70# bluefin