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1962 sea king 5 running on one cylinder

L

landen

New member
Hello, I have a 1962 sea king 5 that I've been trying to get running. This motor runs on the bottom cylinder only but has good spark, compression, and fuel. I have tried almost everything that I can think of but I can't seem to figure it out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hi. Welcome to the forum. I just had a similar problem with a 3 hp twin....same year, but an Evinrude. I'm pretty sure that your Sea King is gonna have a reed valve problem. If compression is good, spark is good, fuel pump? Some are gravity feed tank. I also have one with a fuel pump. If the fuel pump is leaking fuel into the pulse hole, then that cylinder can run so rich that its gonna seem like its a dead cylinder most of the time.
 
A Gale-built Sea King, right? Very nice, simple, high-quality motor,

It isn't a leaking head gasket because they don't have one.

Have you inspected the coils? You are wasting your time until you replace them, if they are cracked. Coild also be a spark plug wire arcing out to ground.

Have you tried a new spark plug?

A broken reed is a possibility, but a rare one. Yes, I would also consider a possible ruptured fuel pump diaphragm,
 
timguy said:
Hi. Welcome to the forum. I just had a similar problem with a 3 hp twin....same year, but an Evinrude. I'm pretty sure that your Sea King is gonna have a reed valve problem. If compression is good, spark is good, fuel pump? Some are gravity feed tank. I also have one with a fuel pump. If the fuel pump is leaking fuel into the pulse hole, then that cylinder can run so rich that its gonna seem like its a dead cylinder most of the time.
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I know that the fuel pump is bad so I will go ahead and replace it. I have even tried putting gas into the top cylinder to help it pop off but if the fuel pump is leaking into the pulse hole and it is already getting to much fuel that wouldn't help at all.
 
fdrgator said:
A Gale-built Sea King, right? Very nice, simple, high-quality motor,

It isn't a leaking head gasket because they don't have one.

Have you inspected the coils? You are wasting your time until you replace them, if they are cracked. Coild also be a spark plug wire arcing out to ground.

Have you tried a new spark plug?

A broken reed is a possibility, but a rare one. Yes, I would also consider a possible ruptured fuel pump diaphragm,
Click to expand...
Yes, Gale built sea king. The outside layer of the coils are cracked really bad but it still gets good spark somehow. But I will go ahead and replace them to knock that possibility out of the way. I have tried new spark plugs on both cylinders. I will definitely order a fuel pump and coils to see if that fixes anything, if not I'll have to dig into it further. Thank you.
 
Reminds me of a time way back when, when a similar Sea King came into the shop with cracked coils. The owner choked at the estimate to replace them. I told him it would run like new once repaired. So he gave me the go-ahead.

A few days after picking up the repaired motor, he came back.

"You told me that motor would run like new", he said. "And it doesn't".
"It doesn't?" I said.
"No, it runs better than new"
 
landen said:
racerone said:
racerone said:
Those cracked coils are SCRAP
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Those cracked coils are SCRAP.
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Click to expand...

fdrgator said:
Reminds me of a time way back when, when a similar Sea King came into the shop with cracked coils. The owner choked at the estimate to replace them. I told him it would run like new once repaired. So he gave me the go-ahead.

A few days after picking up the repaired motor, he came back.

"You told me that motor would run like new", he said. "And it doesn't".
"It doesn't?" I said.
"No, it runs better than new"
Click to expand...
I am definitely replacing the coils but it dosent make sense to me because both cylinders still have good spark.
 
timguy said:
They will soon arc through to the stator plate, then you will get a miss.
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Yes, I understand that and appreciate it but as of right now both cylinders have spark, compression, and are getting fuel. But only the bottom cylinder will run and only at full throttle. Thank you for the help I've got coils and a fuel pump on the way to see if it will help, I will keep you updated on if it works or not.
 
Could be when at high speed it is loosing spark to suspect cylinder because the plug wire is arcing to ground as it bends from the slack, when stator rotates to advance spark timing. Inspect wires closely. If you replace them, be sure to use copper conductor wire only.
 
Thank you to everyone who helped. It was 100% the coils. When I took them off of the plug wire the coil cracked in half and definitely didn't have a good connection.
 
Yup, make sure the coils are mounted the correct gap to the flywheel. You don't want them to rub. There is a delicate chamfer at the top of the mounting posts and the face of the coil has to be at the innermost edge of that chamfer.
 
Yes that is often overlooked. If coils rub, its going to create debris which could end up on the points. Not good to build heat onto coils too. The clockwise rotation will drag stator too, and constantly slow down the motor....you see this on the little 2 1/2, 3 hp, 4 hp, etc....with speed controls directly on the stator arm especially. I run into this problem so very often by amateur workers who have "tuned up" the motor.
 
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