115 no spark

[jckeane]

i have a 115 ETLH and have been having intermittent starting problems for a while. The boat was stored all winter in my garage, brought it out a month ago and started it periodically. All was fine and it fired up perfectly. Last weekend we put the boat in the water and it ran great. The boat stays in the water on a dock all summer. Today, the boat does not start. There is no spark to any of the four cylinders. I have isolated the problem to motor and not the boat, what is my next step. It seems like it may be a moisture related issue, but i do not know where to go next. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. This issue is very sporadic and i may go there tomorrow and the boat will fire up no problem.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: 115 no spark

are you using a spark tester to make a 7\16ths gap for the arc or guessing its gone.
the only way to find it is a methodical approach.
what creates the system operating voltage, what creates the system timing voltages. seperate it from ign producing components and ign controling.
on your engine ign producing are charge coils,lose a low speed charge coil and no spark cranking.
next is the CDI itself.
lose it and the system quits.
next are ign coils but odds are against all 4 failing at once.
the pulser coils control ign timing and are mounted on a movable timer base.
lose one and you lose two cylinders.
have you removed the CDI cover and tested spark with the white wire(kill) removed?
to test the system you have to have a peak reading analog meter or a digital volt meter with a DVA adapter.
from there its voltage in vs voltage out.

 

[jckeane]

Re: 115 no spark

thanks for your quick response rodbolt. I used a spark tester, with, at most 7/16th gap. i am pretty confident there is no fire in all four cylinders.
would moisture intermittently kill the pulsar or cdi? I pulled the plug on the main harness to the motor and tried to jump start it across the starter relay. that should isolate the motor from the boat. Still no fire, so i assume we are now looking at the motor itself. I have a digital volt meter but no DVA adapter. I think i could get one, so what would be the logical steps to finding the issue? Thanks again

 

[rodbolt]

Re: 115 no spark

dissconect the white wire from the CDI and retest.
with a digital multimeter you can do the resistance tests on the charge coils but I prefer working oltages.
brown to red is low speed and should be about 1050 ohms.then check both for shorts to ground. high speed is blue and black\ red,should have about 127 ohms.

 

[jckeane]

Re: 115 no spark

Thanks... I will try removing the wht and retest spark. Then will check ohms on coils. I will not get to this until tomorrow. How can i check for shorts to ground?

 

[rodbolt]

Re: 115 no spark

one meter lead on a wire the other meter lead to ground,should see infite ohms on all 4 charge coil wires to ground.
test one at a time.

 

[jckeane]

Re: 115 no spark

will test in morning and report back

 

[jckeane]

Re: 115 no spark

This morning its pouring down rain here Maine, so i figure, what better time to try the next step to isolate my problem. Unfortunately (sort of...), the motor fired up as if it had been running all day. Spark is great, no problems at all... I really hate intermittent problems.

Tested resistance and numbers were right on rodbolt's post. Low speed was 1047 and high was 125. The next problem is that i will not be back here until next weekend. In the mean time, i will pick up a DVA, and post next weekend. Stay tuned...

 

[jckeane]

Re: 115 no spark

I am finally back after the no spark issue occurred over the weekend. Testing the wires coming in from the stator checked out okay, however, there was no voltage leaving the CDI to any of the four cylinders.

On the connections to the CDI, there is the White, which is the emergency switch, then below that is Pink and then black. My manual identifies those as ground. Actually, on the CDI schematic, it says pink and on the boat its pink, however, in the wiring diagram for this model, it says that terminal is yellow and goes to the control unit. Now that is confusing to me...

Should all three of these wires act as a grounding point for testing and result in the same readings on the meter? This thought did not actually occur to me until 2 AM this morning, but the pink was giving me different readings than the white, or a separate test ground back to the battery. Any thoughts where to go next???

 

[jckeane]

Re: 115 no spark

Does anybody have a wiring diagram for this 115 (1988)? I am thinking that the one i have is incorrect. Thanks

 

[rodbolt]

Re: 115 no spark

white is kill when grounded. dissconect the white and with key on test for continuity to ground,should be infinite,black is CDI ground,pink is the RPM reduction from the alarm system and should only be grounded in an alarm condition. when you have no CDI output is a very good time to check CDI inputs.

 

[jckeane]

Re: 115 no spark

That clarifies the wht, pink, and black, thank you. So, with no output to the cylinders, and correct input stator, would that indicate CDI problem? or what would be the next diagnosis step.

Thanks for all your help on this Rodbolt, you certainly help many people on this forum.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: 115 no spark

good inputs,no outputs with the pink and white wires off the CDI would lead towards a CDI failure.

 

[jckeane]

Re: 115 no spark

Thanks. I will try removing pink and white next time the problem occurs and see. Will post on the weekend, when i am at the lake.