1990 Evinrude 200hp No Spark

[bmx9854]

I'm struggling to identify the faulty component in a 1990 Evinrude 200hp. I bought the boat in May and the seller tested it in the yard with muffs on and it started right up and ran it for about 10 minutes. The seller had told me that the batteries were not charging and that the regulator/rectifier may be bad. Once I got it home I tested the regulator/rectifier and it tested faulty. I replaced the regulator/rectifier with a new replacement from Sierra. Additionally, I replaced the water pump, both T-stats (6/8 bolts snapped!:mad-new, the tilt trim unit , disabled the VRO pump and removed the remote oil tank, installed new gapped plugs and rehabbed the entire engine cosmetically.

After all this work was completed the batteries were charged and it was ready to fire up and when I turned the key I had no spark on any cylinder. It's been 3 weeks now (only have the weekends to work on the boat) and I'm still trouble shooting the issue. I went through the SELOC manuals and followed to a T the CDI trouble shooting guide for this (disconnect black/yellow shift wire, yellow regulator/rectifier wires, check all engine grounds, etc.). The first round of trouble shooting indicated to me that the power pack had failed. The DVA connected from the charge coils was ~50v and when disconnected was ~190v. See the table below. All "-" were data points that I did not take. As I continued to trouble shoot in different iterations I realized that there was more data I could capture.

1990 Evinrude 200 HP (Original Parts) 170729 - No Spark Ignition Data
Terminal A	Terminal B	Resistance Discon	Reading Ohm	DVA Connected	Reading V	DVA Discon	Reading V	Terminal B to GRND Discon	Terminal B to GRND Connected
Brown	Brown/Yellow	950-1100	955	>150	50	>150	190	-	-
Brown	Brown/Yellow	950-1100	943	>150	50	>150	200	-	-
Orange	Orange/Black	93-103	100	10-24v	12	45-120	-	-	-
White	Purple	~1-5M*	~1M	100-400	37	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Blue	~1-5M*	~1M	100-400	39	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Green	~1-5M*	~1M	100-400	38	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Purple 2	~1-5M*	~1M	100-400	40	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Blue 2	~1-5M*	~1M	100-400	40	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Green 2	~1-5M*	~1M	100-400	38	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Black/White 2	215-225	224	6-10v	8	-	-	-	-
-	White	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

I purchased a new Sierra power pack and installed it last weekend. Unfortunately, the results were the same ~40DVA connected and ~190 DVA disconnected. I did not take any other readings as this indicated to me that there was something else wrong and that the original power pack was good, therefore I did not take any additional data. See data below.

1990 Evinrude 200 HP (New Power Pack) 170805 - No Spark Ignition Data
Terminal A	Terminal B	Resistance Discon	Reading Ohm	DVA Connected	Reading V	DVA Discon	Reading V	Terminal B to GRND Discon	Terminal B to GRND Connected
Brown	Brown/Yellow	950-1100	955	>150	43	>150	190	-	-
Brown	Brown/Yellow	950-1100	943	>150	40	>150	190	-	-
Orange	Orange/Black	93-103	-	10-24v	15	45-120	-	-	-
White	Purple	~1-5M*	-	100-400	-	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Blue	~1-5M*	-	100-400	-	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Green	~1-5M*	-	100-400	-	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Purple 2	~1-5M*	-	100-400	-	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Blue 2	~1-5M*	-	100-400	-	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Green 2	~1-5M*	-	100-400	-	>0.6	-	-	-
White	Black/White 2	215-225	-	6-10v	-	-	-	-	-
-	White	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

During the week, I called CDI and spoke with their technical support for almost an hour and the rep could not tell me exactly why but was adamant that it was the stator that was faulty. So I bought a stator (overnight Saturday delivery!). I pulled the flywheel off this morning and all the magnets and components looked good. I then installed the new stator and again there was no spark. I went through all of the testing and found that the charge coil DVA was ~30v connected and ~150v connected (battery was getting a bit weak as well). Additionally, the Timer base resistance and DVA were out of spec. I tested everything 2-3x?s and I?m starting to go crazy. See the third round of data below.

1990 Evinrude 200 HP (New Stator) 170812 - No Spark Ignition Data
Terminal A	Terminal B	Resistance Discon	Reading Ohm	DVA Connected	Reading V	DVA Discon	Reading V	Terminal B to GRND Discon	Terminal B to GRND Connected
Brown	Brown/Yellow	950-1100	924	>150	30	>150	150	infinity	infinity
Brown	Brown/Yellow	950-1100	922	>150	26	>150	150	infinity	infinity
Orange	Orange/Black	93-103	100	10-24v	12	45-120	48	infinity	infinity
White	Purple	~1-5M*	6.6M	100-400	0	>0.6	0	infinity	124
White	Blue	~1-5M*	infinity	100-400	0	>0.6	0.55	infinity	107
White	Green	~1-5M*	infinity	100-400	0	>0.6	0.55	infinity	116
White	Purple 2	~1-5M*	infinity	100-400	0	>0.6	0.76	infinity	120
White	Blue 2	~1-5M*	infinity	100-400	0	>0.6	0	infinity	129
White	Green 2	~1-5M*	infinity	100-400	0	>0.6	0.56	infinity	108
White	Black/White 2	215-225	225-260	6-10v	6	-	0	-	infinity
-	White	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0

I?ve been fortunate so far and was able to return the power pack and hope to do the same with the stator. I?m happy to buy a new timer base if this really is the problem since the new power pack and stator seemed to make no difference but I don?t want to unmethodically throw parts at this. I don?t understand if there is or could be a relationship from the charge coil connected DVA being low and a bad timer base. I am very mechanically inclined and it is very bothersome to be stuck at this point, not to mention the boating season is closing fast here in MA! It would be greatly appreciated if there are any helpful suggestions or confirmation that this data does conclude that the Timer base is the faulty item.

 

[jakedaawg]

Have you checked for spark w/ all plugs out? Need to make sure it's turning fast enough.

Key switch and safety lanyard checked?

That's a lot of info tested, I would need to compare values to the manual to go further there. I am not home this weekend.

Got a model #? I can't remember what a 90 200 is.

 

[Joe Reeves]

I see nothing about compression... that engine (new) would normally have approximately 95 psi on the starboard bank with 90 psi on the port bank. It would be a good idea to check it so as not to overlook anything.

Spark is to be tested with "all" spark plugs removed. The spark should be a strong blue lightning like flame, jumping a 7/16" air gap... a real SNAP! The gap is important!

The engine must be cranking over at least 300 rpm in order for the stator to generate the proper AC voltage to the powerpack capacitor, needed to energize the pack. A slow cranking engine will emit weak, erratic, or no ignition/spark.

The spark test (keeping it simple)... remove the black/yellow wire (kill circuit) from the "M" terminal of the ignition switch. Check spark... if you now have spark, replace the ignition switch (shorted switch).

If still no spark, visually inspect the two large black coils at the rear portion of the stator. If they are dripping a sticky looking substance down on the powerhead area. If this condition exists, replace the stator regardless of whatever reading you may get from it as that would result in a AC voltage drop to the powerpack capacitor, resulting again in weak, erratic, or no ignition/spark.

Let us know what you find.

 

[bmx9854]

Jake - I had the batteries charged up fully and had no spark on any cylinder. I did not exclusively check the lanyard safety. FYI my data has all of the recommended values in the left column and the actual readings on the right. I had issues with pasting my excel table on here, sorry it is so cumbersome to look at. The model is an E200TXESM[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Roboto Regular, Helvetica Neue, Geneva, Lucida Grande, Verdana, sans-serif].

Joe - I'd like to rule out compression since the readings I took on the ignition parts are out of spec. Like I mentioned, the seller ran the boat for me before I purchased it and it started right up and ran OK. The seller offered to re-verify the compression but had said it was good. I can check again anyhow. As for spark, I have a spark gap tester and at any distance there is no spark whatsoever. I will give the ignition switch test a shot, I had tried unplugging the black/yellow neutral safety wires already and was unsuccessful. And to your last point I did replace the stator and had nearly identical results with the DVA connected and disconnected readings, the (new and old!) stator is not putting out enough power.

-Aaron[/FONT]

 

[jakedaawg]

Blk/yel is the kill. It grounds the ignition. Has nothing to do with neutral safety which is the start circuit yel/red. That said...


Due to similarity in test results I would like to see you do three things:

1. Find the sticky up top of the forum and preform the various ohmmeter checks of key switch. By the way, is this a side mount remote control or a binnacle style with a separate key switch and kill lanyard?

2. Regardless of the fully charged status, it would be best if you had the battery load tested (any auto parts store will do this free of charge). Then regardless of your setup hook the main battery cables up to just that one battery taking any perko switch out of the equation, assuming it is a good 600cca (800 preferable) or better battery and not some sams club special.

3. Remove your starter, disassemble and check for worn brushes and what not. We really need to make sure this is spinning fast enough. A slow starter is what your results really point to. We could even benefit from bypassing the solenoid and spinning straight from a known good battery. Do you happen to have a newer timing light or some such reliable way to verify cranking RPM?

The confusing thing here is you followed the CDI trouble shooting guide, replaced both the pack and the stator, and still dont have any spark. I guess I am assuming your at least checking for spark on each side and not just one plug. I mean there is no spark on any lead positively.

There isn't much to thesee ignitions. Its not like we are dealing with an Opti. You have a switch you turn, you have a starter that needs to spin, a flywheel and a stator that makes voltage, a bunch of caps and scrs that dispense it (power pack), a couple of diodes, and I have yet to see all six coils fail at once! You also have a shift interrupter in there but I am not near a manual. Maybe someone has one that can chime in but I am pretty positive that that switch only interupts a bank not the whole ignition. But then again this is a single pack 90* looper and not a twin pack crossflow unless I am missing something here. I could be, happens to all of us...

 

[bmx9854]

Jake - Thanks for the suggestions.Sounds like there are a few things for me to check next weekend. In general though, wouldn't a slow crank cause both the charge coil connected and disconnected DVA readings to be low? And yes I've checked for spark on several plugs, both banks. The controls are binnacle mounted with separate key switch. I'd like to think and find that it is something simple giving me all this grief!

 

[Faztbullet]

I called CDI and spoke with their technical support for almost an hour and the rep could not tell me exactly why but was adamant that it was the stator that was faulty

LOL!! Clark always says its a stator problem.Pull the plugs and test for spark,if you have spark replace starter. If not disconnect harness and jump starter and if spark returns its wiring problem. If still no spark replace timer base.

 

[bmx9854]

LOL!! Clark always says its a stator problem.Pull the plugs and test for spark,if you have spark replace starter. If not disconnect harness and jump starter and if spark returns its wiring problem. If still no spark replace timer base.

I'll try this as well but is there not merit to the fact that my timer base connected DVA was 0 on all terminals and should be 100-400v and the disconnected DVA was under the spec 0.6v for all but one??