1973 50HP Evinrude no spark after moving

[FillupD]

I bought a boat with a 50 hp motor on it and it ran very well. I switched the motor and the controls to my boat and now the motor will crank OK but has no spark.
It ran great before I switched it. What could have went wrong? It runs fine but after swap, no spark?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1973 50HP Evinrude no spark after moving

kill switch? are you using the same controller? check for black wire with yellow chaser, shorting on something. that is the kill wire.

 

[FillupD]

Re: 1973 50HP Evinrude no spark after moving

I disconnected the yellow/black wire from the power pack and have no spark. I checked the ohms at the brown wire and came up with 837 and no voltage read from the same wire. Should there be voltage there? There is voltage at the black/yellow wire screw, ouch!
Yes I am using the same controller. Right before I switched motors I started it several times and it ran great. I'm just really confused what may have happened in the move from one boat to another.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1973 50HP Evinrude no spark after moving

http://www.boatpartstore.com/page29.asp

 

[FillupD]

Re: 1973 50HP Evinrude no spark after moving

I got some advice to take the plugs out and crank the motor over since it has been sitting for a few years to make it crank fast and wake up the stator.
Put the plugs back in and the motor runs great.
Took it to the lake today and it runs great and revs good in nuetral but when you put it in gear and the throttle is wide open it hardly moves the boat. It does not rev very high when under a load.
Took it home and played with it the driveway and tried to check compression but my gauge is broke but it looked like it jumped up to 150 at the start of cranking. Checked spark with the plugs out and had none. Put the plugs back in and still no start or spark. Turned the key about one minute later and the motor fired up and ran like a champ.
My problem is, No power under load, and it seems the spark has a tendency to come and go. Any Ideas? I am really stumped.

 

[FillupD]

Re: 1973 50HP Evinrude no spark after moving

I have ordered 2 coils from here to replace mine because one of them has a hairline crack on the side of it. Could this be my problem of no power under load?
The crack is not on the end but it is on the side. I'm not sure if this is enough to rob spark or not. I am just going to replace them both to take that part out of the troubleshooting picture.
Do you think this could have been be a problem?

 

[FillupD]

Re: 1973 50HP Evinrude no spark after moving

Well, I'm still at it. Motor started and ran. Changed both coils and have no spark now. Both old coils had cracks in them and one plug wire was so corroded it broke right out of the boot.
I looked at some old threads and found if I disconnected the red plug and jumped the starter, and still had no spark, that this test would take the ignition switch out of the picture. Well I did that and had no spark so I think the switch is not the problem so the next step is the Power Pack. Right?
I read in the manual about checking the coil connections at the power pack for voltage but I'm not sure what kind of meter to use. Will a regular VOM work? I don't want to burn my meter up. It said use a neon tester but I don't know what that is.