1988 Bayliner Trophy 1910 With 1988 Force 125 Wont get on plane

[FreestateFishing]

Well I feel stupid now. Jiggz , read your post on doing a cylinder drop test by pulling the plug wires one at a time. So I gave it a try. I noticed very little difference when I pulled them...so I inspected my plugs . Noticed unburned fuel. But each wire gave me a good jolt of electricity so I unplugged a green and yellow wire from the rectifier, started it let it idle for a few then shut it off and checked the plugs , signs of burnt fuel .so I think I'm going to go ahead get new battery cables , rectifier and clean up all the connections and terminals. hopefully get out Saturday and see if I can at least get up to cruising speed..

 

[Jiggz]

Yes, with those plug wires being more than 10 years old it'll surely give you a jolt. If you wear some insulating gloves it helps. Remember after pulling a plug wire listen for change in engine tone. With a 4 cylinder it's a little hard to tell if there is a change unless you have a working tach. But experience helps a lot in discerning a change in rpm.

If there is no change in rpm, that is a bad sign indicating the engine is not firing on all cylinders. Before going out to the water, you can check if the engine revs out really good by using the carb tie bar to rev it up. Do not hold it up high for more than a second or two, but from the reaction of the engine you can readily tell if it will at least hit 4500~5500 RPM at WOT.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Standing on a piece of wood helps a little with the shock

 

[FreestateFishing]

Yeah , the shock wasn't very fun but. That drop cylinder test put me one step closer to fixing this old outboard .No pain no gain. But I got spark on all 4 cylinders now . I will put her over and test run it tomorrow. Thank You Guy's. I'm really hoping that I can get up on to a decent cruise speed tomorrow. Going insane being stuck on dry land

 

[Jiggz]

"But I got spark on all 4 cylinders now" although this is a very good sign, it doesn't mean you're firing on all cylinders. But if what you mean by this statement is that you're firing on all cylinders, then you're golden. Goodluck on the test run.

 

[Redbarron%%]

An inductive timing light will check for spark on each plug, but not for power drop when puling a plug.
There is danger of electrocuting yourself and even more important breaking down the insulation in the coil.
Back in the day when I worked on distributor car engines I learned to pull the plug wire at the distributor so the high voltage energy was more likely to pass through the wire to the plug than jump through the insulation and me.