1969 55hp Evinrude - 3 cylinders, 2 breaker points?

[cspargo]

For the life of me I can't quite understand what the mechanism is here. There's 3 cam lobes on the crank (120 degrees from each other), but there's also TWO breaker points instead of one, 60 degrees from each other. Is there a wasted spark? Some sort of redundant system I can't immediately divine?

 

[racerone]

Something called ---" delayed parallel"-----Is at work here.-----Instead of trying to understand how the breakers work tell us what your motor is doing / not doing.

 

[cspargo]

Oh, motor runs fine. I'm just trying to understand it!

Spark does get weaker after it warms up a bit, so I'm going to check grounds and put a fresh coil in it. It had a broken advance arm on the stator, so I had it all apart to repair that. I'm familiar with a lot of motorcycle stuff, but I'm new to outboards, so just trying to fully understand what I'm looking at.

Thanks!

 

[cspargo]

OK - more digging (thanks for the 'delayed parallel' key). Found this: https://forums.iboats.com/forum/eng...outboards/198439-1969-evinrude-55hp-point-set

So I THINK they're using two sets of points to effectively change the shape of the cam lobe - perhaps the optimal lobes were nearly overlapping each other.

Thanks!

 

[racerone]

I have more than 1 of these motors.-----Worked on many of them.------There are other issues with these motors.----Pieces breaking off the piston skirt is one of them.

 

[F_R]

OK - more digging (thanks for the 'delayed parallel' key). Found this: https://forums.iboats.com/forum/eng...outboards/198439-1969-evinrude-55hp-point-set

So I THINK they're using two sets of points to effectively change the shape of the cam lobe - perhaps the optimal lobes were nearly overlapping each other.

Thanks!

You are more or less correct. One set "makes" the connection and the other comes right along behind it to "break" the circuit. It makes for some unusual dwell.

 

[boobie]

Which gives you better spark !!