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Losing fire

M

Markj

New member
Hey guys, a friend has a johnson 88spl that is driving him nuts. It will start right up and run a couple seconds and die. When it dies, it loses fire. Any ideas?
 
Try disconnecting the kill wire and see if the engine stays running when you start it what is the model number of the motor? Kill wire is normally the yellow/black stripe at the power pack?
 
Is the fuel line attached properly.... with the arrow of the bulb pointing to the engine? Has this engine been sitting long, does the fuel primer bulb get hard, when is the last time it ran as it should? We could use a little history here. What's the model number of the engine?

Start with the basic trouble shooting procedure...... Check the compression, what are the psi readings of "all" cylinders.... next, with "all" spark plugs removed, rig up a spark tester to have a 7/16" air gap. The spark should jump that gap with a strong blue lightning like flame... a real SNAP! Does it? NOTE that the gap is important!.

If the two areas above are as they should be, especially if the engine has been sitting for a long spell, I would suspect the carburetors are fouled... mainly the high speed jets located horizontally in the bottom center portion of the float chambers... way in back of those drain screws.
 
Joe...Not to high jack this thread,but since your discussing spark.Is it possible to have a week spark that causes starting and idling issues,but will run on high rpm ok if you get it started?
 
It isn't a fuel problem. He checked the plugs after is died and no fire. He bypassed the kill switch and still no fire. Yestetday, it ran flawlessly for 5 minutes then died. He checked for fire, nothing.
 
He is gonna pull the flywheel and check the electrical stuff today. He's thinking cdi or powerpack. All cold tested good, but still losing fire after running a short time.
 
Disconnect the black/yellow wire (kill wire) at the ignition switch. If that cures the problem, the switch has an intermittent short, in which case, replace the ignition switch.
 
The " electrical stuff " can be tested with flywheel in place.--------------Not much you can do by looking at " the stuff " in my opinion.
 
Update: the engine started and ran flawlessly yesterday. He went back and started it several times and it ran great with no issues. This morning, it hit one time and lost fire. He has disconnected the kill switch and still no fire. He thinks it may be a loose connection somewhere. He replaced the ignition switch
 
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Pardon my lack of technical terms and my ignorance. I'm not an out board technician.....if I was, I wouldn't be asking for advice. I guess electrical components would have been a better choice of words than electrical stuff.
 
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"Electrical stuff" terminology is good....... "Stuff that makes stuff work" is not! :)

Find the black/yellow wire at the powerpack that leads to the ignition switch... disconnect it from the powerpack. If this cures the spark problem, there's a possible "conductance" type short in that wire leading to the switch.

Check all of those round barrel like rubber electrical connectors for broken frayed wires that just appear to be connected to their related pins/sockets. Also check that all pins/sockets are where they belong and NOT pushed back somewhat so that they don't have a firm connection.

Check the stator under the flywheel to see if it might be encountering a meltdown and dripping a sticky looking substance down on the powerhead area. A melt down prevents the stator from energizing the powerpack capacitor, resulting in erratic, weak, and eventually no ignition/spark.
 
joereeves said:
"Electrical stuff" terminology is good....... "Stuff that makes stuff work" is not! :)

Find the black/yellow wire at the powerpack that leads to the ignition switch... disconnect it from the powerpack. If this cures the spark problem, there's a possible "conductance" type short in that wire leading to the switch.

Check all of those round barrel like rubber electrical connectors for broken frayed wires that just appear to be connected to their related pins/sockets. Also check that all pins/sockets are where they belong and NOT pushed back somewhat so that they don't have a firm connection.

Check the stator under the flywheel to see if it might be encountering a meltdown and dripping a sticky looking substance down on the powerhead area. A melt down prevents the stator from energizing the powerpack capacitor, resulting in erratic, weak, and eventually no ignition/spark.
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Thanks. That's why he's gonna pull the flywheel, so he can check the "stuff" underneath.
 
Okay, this is crazy. So far, the engine has ran great twice since he got it. Both times, it was sitting in the sun with the hood off and the cdi in direct sunlight. This morning, it wouldn't fire, so he heated the cdi with a hair dryer and it fired right up and ran great. Apparently, the cdi is bad, but normally they shut down when they heat up. Sounds crazy to me.
 
Have him check the ground wire connections to the 2 coils and the CDI pack. And by "check" I mean: Are the ground bolts tight? Is the paint removed from where the ground lugs are connected?

Hot/cold = expansion/contraction - could effect a ground connection. These are easy things to check.

CMOS
 
CMOS said:
Have him check the ground wire connections to the 2 coils and the CDI pack. And by "check" I mean: Are the ground bolts tight? Is the paint removed from where the ground lugs are connected?

Hot/cold = expansion/contraction - could effect a ground connection. These are easy things to check.

CMOS
Click to expand...

Will do. Thanks.
 
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