1988 Mercury 20hp no spark 1 cyl

fishon71

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 21, 2002
Messages
575
When I bought this motor I heard it run and sounded good. When I got it home I cleaned the carb and serviced the motor like I always do. When I went to start it again I got nothing not even a sputter. Checked for spark and did not have any at least I thought none. But what I have now is spark on one cylinder. Both coils, plugs and wires are okay as I switched the wires and got spark out of each. So I bought a new switch box, I put it on and had spark once and maybe a few hours later once again on that same problem cylinder. The other one always has spark. Now I'm starting to wonder about the stator. Is the stator split to give spark to each cylinder separably? Any other ideas that come to mind? Thanks, I really hate electrical problems.
 
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Heywire77

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 19, 2012
Messages
101
Sounds like you have a broken wire somewhere I would go through and check the wires really good
 

fishon71

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 21, 2002
Messages
575
Well, I was stumped and still are so I bought a used stator and mounted it on the motor. At first I had a weak spark on #1 the first six pulls or so then it went away but still strong on #2. So to this point I have cleaned all connections, checked all wires, tried two switch boxes, tested coils, tested wires, tested plugs, replaced stator, cleaned flywheel and still can not get a constant strong spark on #1 cylinder - whats left ????
 
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