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New everything still no spark

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PTus324541

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I am now stuck with no fire. I have worked on many small motors but not many outboards.
I have a 1957 Johnson 18hp FD-11 K . This motor has not run in 30 years. It ran very nice 30 years ago. It has been in a garage all that time. I replaced seals, impeller, fuel lines, rebuilt the pressure tank and carb. All of this went very well. I got it cranked and ran it for a while but I felt it could run better so I pulled the flywheel.
After adjusting the point gap I got it cranked a couple of days ago and sheared the crankshaft key right away. I learned this was my fault for oiling the taper and not torquing the nut. I got through that and lapped the taper back in. That is all good now.
After that wreck I found I only had fire in the top cylinder. The coil for the bottom cylinder looked original with cloth insulated leads. It was not cracked. I decided to get new coils, points, plugs, wire, and plug boots. All of those new parts went on great. Now I have no fire zero.
The new coils read about 2.8 between the two leads. from one lead to where the plug wire goes is 8.6. After new wires are in they still read 8.6 in the plug boot, good connection.
One of the old points had a pit, so I replaced both sets and condensers. I even got out my dial indicator to find the exact top of the cam. Turns out the highest point is at the "O" in TOP, not the arrow. This spot is about .0045 - .0050 higher than at the arrow. The highest point is where I set the gap to .020". Should the points be set at the arrow and have the extra rise to open even more in a rotation???
I did synchronize the mag plate to the carb as well, with the help of your video! Thanks!
I am currently charging the flywheel magnets up with some powerful rare earth magnets, letting them set for a while. Just to rule that out.

There are a couple of things I did not have/do.
I did not have the timing tool.
I did not have the ring to locate the coils. I did line them up carefully with the little step on the mag plate where the ring would set. I even moved them around several times trying to get a spark.

This motor did run before I pulled the flywheel the first time and briefly once after adjusting the old points. Now I have zero fire after replacing the points, coils and wires. It has to be something simple and easy that I am missing. Perhaps something shorted or grounded???
Any Ideas on something odd this could be??

Thanks,
Phillip
 
You do have the wires from coil going to the correct set of points ???-----Set the points at 0.020.----Clean the points even if new.---You should now have spark.----Or find a dozen videos on you tube for numerous good tips.----These magnetos were used for 40 years.----They are elegantly simple.
 
Wires are correct. I do have a weak spark, got shocked. It does not light up my spark tester, not sure if that is good. These things are very simple, that is what gets me! I need to test my spark testers. I may also try the old coils they have a different reading from the new ones. 1.8 between the leads and 4.5 to the plug wire.
 
I ordered one of the timing tools. It will be here in a couple of days. I was looking at setting the points with the arrow on the cam, watched that video. When I see the piston is at TDC with a dial indicator. The arrow on the cam lines up with the point wiper perfectly as long as the throttle is in start position. This is confusing because the video to set points using the tool shows to set the points as just opening at TDC. Can you explain the relationship of TDC, the cam arrow, and throttle position when setting the point gap to .020"? I feel like where I am setting my point gap may be the reason for my very weak spark.

Thanks,
A very confused Phillip
 
Read carefully.----You are timing the opening of the points relative to the magnets rotating past the coils.----Does not matter where the throttle is.----It does not !-----The timing tool ( I have them ) is nothing but a " dummy flywheel " and you can use your flywheel to set points with a meter.----I do it all the time that way in a pinch when I do bot have the timing tool handy !
 
Here is essentially how I do it using a multimeter, no need to buy any tool. The video is a lot longer than needed, but shows the procedure.
 
Thank you sir, that video was great and easy to follow!!! when I dialed in my points with this method I ended up with a gap of .024/-025" at the cam arrow. A bit past the arrow, at the "O" of TOP the gap opens even more. Setting this way gave me a spark I could see in the plug. In just a few pulls the motor cranked up and ran. Now I need to adjust the carb properly.
 
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