Dean Herring
New member
I got out on the water for the first time after getting the engine from a fellow who rebuilt it for me. all went well for the first 15 minutes and then we lost power - seems like it all went to half speed. took the cowl off after we got out of the water and tightened up the packing nut on the high speed needle - how tight to make it I don't know but made it as tight as the top low speed needle. reason I tightened it up was that the handle on the needle valve kept falling over - so the nut was loose - BUT I think the real issue was that the top spark plug wire (called high tension? in the parts catalog) definitely had made its way up under the flywheel and the insulation was wore through to the wire inside - loosing spark? arcing to the flywheel? Anyway put some elec tape around that, round a portion of the wire so that the spring could kick it back down and then going to re-launch this weekend to see if the problem was the wire up against the flywheel - at high speed the wire is rotated about with the magneto system and that's when it contacts - i assume. anyway buddy said that elec tape won't do as moisture will get to the wire - he says I need a new spark plug wire - IS THAT what i need? - just get new wire and then redo the ends with what is already there - i can't see up into the magneto stuff where its terminated up there. I'm new at this engine stuff - build wood boats myself and this engine is on one of them. Thanks for you help, Dean