1995 Force 120 Help

I'll start from the beginning.

Just bought my first boat, bayliner capri with Force 120 outboard. Started fine when I bought it, and I took it out Saturday and it ran fine all day other than a little smoke here and there. I went to take it out the following Sunday and it wouldn't start to save my life. It'll crank all day but no evidence it's ever going to pop. I messed with it all weekend and still nada. I have replaced plugs,battery, a few fuel lines, cleaned carbs, made sure flywheel keyway was still in place, bypassed kill switch to make sure that's not an issue. Checked compression (120‐130 on all cylinders), it has spark, it's getting fuel, but won't pop. I'm at the point now thinking spark may not be strong enough so new stator will be here tomorrow, but running great one day and not at all the next also has me thinking a secondary safety but that contradicts me getting spark. I'm almost at a loss. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

You using the choke/primer when starting? Using the fast idle?

If your getting spark then the stator is probably OK!!

Try starting fluid?

Here's an update, I bought an a spark tester yesterday to do a proper test.
#1-fail
#2-pass but weak
#3-fail
#4 fail

Jerry I had tried the choke/primer and starting fluid and still no pop. I don't know alot about outboards, but research tells me the trigger could be bad too?

The updated test shows a lot.

No spark on 3 out of 4 probably isn't the trigger, you might be right about the stator??
Do the tests for the stator, then the pack(if there's a test for the pack?)

utboardignitiondotcom has test procedures for your motor.

Stator was bad.

Changed the stator and it fired right up!

Thanks for the help!

You should contact the repair service. You are already unlikely to be able to fix something yourself. That's why I decided not to buy a boat. Think about selling it. It's just there are many problems with it. This is not a car that can be repaired in any auto service. When I wanted to take a ride to the sea, I rented a cool boat for a couple of hours and enjoyed the sea air. I don't argue that having your own boat is convenient, but most people don't consider the fact that it is a costly hobby. Therefore, I think it is much more profitable to rent a boat a couple of times a week than buy it.

I've been without a boat for a year now.
The last (of many) started falling apart(the wood: delaminating) too big a fix.
It's been a B*&^% without my own boat, having to depend on "friends" and maybe a trip on a head boat( )
Need to set priorities. Gonna get another soon.

If you can afford to rent? good for you, I can't and I can do a LOT of fixing for the rental costs.