(Magneto Capacitance Discharge Coils - Continuity Test))
(J. Reeves)
Check the continuity of the ignition coils. Remove the primary orange wire from whatever it's connected to. It may be connected to a powerpack screw type terminal, a rubber plug connector, or it may simply plug onto a small boss terminal of the coil itself.
Connect the black lead of a ohm meter to the spark plug boot terminal, then with the red ohm meter lead, touch the ground of the coil or the powerhead itself if the coil is still installed.
Then touch (still with the red lead) the orange wire if it's attached to the coil, or if it's not attached, touch the primary stud of the coil. You should get a reading on both touches (contacts). If not, check the spring terminal inside the rubber boots of the spark plug wire. Poor or no continuity of a coil is one reason for s/plug fouling.
Be sure to thoroughly check the continuity of the spark plug wire itself.
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(Stator "35amp" Melt Down)
(J. Reeves)
The usual characteristic or sympton pertaining to an engine that has a stator melting down is that it will have spark when cold, but will have weak or no spark when hot. Many engines will run fine at first, but after being shut down, then attempting to restart 30 minutes or so later will not start. However, after sitting and cooling down, the engine may once more start and run. Eventually the stator will fail altogether resulting in no ignition/spark even when fully cooled.
This pertains mainly to the 35amp charging stator BUT this problem has also affected other smaller ampere stators. Make a note that the stator on engines manufactured in and after 1973 are two fold components. There are a series of smaller coils which deliver AC voltage to the rectifier, the rectifier converts that voltage to DC voltage to charge the battery. There are larger coils that deliver AC voltage to the powerpack capacitor in order to energize the ignition.
The 35 ampere stator has two (2) large black coils located (usually) at the rear of the stator. This 35 amp stator runs extremely hot and even though the water cooled voltage regulator/rectifier may be in perfect working order, this type stator will in time have what is called a "Melt Down". This is when those two large black coils start to drip a sticky substance down upon the timer base and the powerhead. The result is that the outgoing AC voltage to the powerpack capacitor drops, and this in turn results in weak ignition and eventually no ignition.
The smaller ampere stators (4 cyl) may have those larger coils... One at the extreme front, the other at the extreme rear of the stator.
If a rectifier on any horsepower engine has failed (keeping it simple), this results in having the voltage back up at the stator causing the stator to overheat, which in turn causes a stator melt down.
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...no issues. I'm going to call this one done!! I guess that maybe I had a loose or dirty connection somewhere in the circuit and all the cleaning solved it.