'78 Evinrude 115 has no spark

[Jleibold]

Hello all,
First off, I am completely new to the boating scene. But, i'm trying to learn.

I picked up an old aluminum boat with a '78 Evinrude 115 on it. It wasn't running at the time. I cleaned up the corroded wires, took off the carbs and cleaned them, drained the gas, and got it running. After about 15 minutes of idling, one of my power packs went bad. Replaced it, and it ran fine. I idled it in my driveway for about 20 minutes and didn't see any problems. Went on a night fishing trip for about 9 hours. Ran good for the most part, had some trouble idling sometimes, but I think that was fuel related.

Next morning, I started it up and ran it to the launch ramp. When I got to the ramp I purposely cut it off, and I couldn't get it started again. Manually loaded it up and the next day I tried to start it again with no luck. Checked out the plugs, and I'm not getting fire to any of them. I've got a manual for a '77 model, but I belive the ignition system is different on the '78. I'm thinking it might be ignition switch related. I'm going to be working on it tomorrow and I will check to see if it's related to the kill switch part of the ignition.
Does anyone have any other suggestions for me? I'm lost as to why it would be running fine and just all of a sudden quit getting fire to all plugs. Especially when I turned it off. That's why I think it might be related to wiring. Let me know what ya'll think.

Thanks,
Joel.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: '78 Evinrude 115 has no spark

unplug big red wiring harness plug and then follow this, jumping the solenoid.
mount the muffs on water intake, connect hose. now with a remote starter switch, auto parts store, connect 1 wire of the switch to the top battery post on the solenoid, the other wire to the top small post, turn water on, squeeze switch, motor should turn over. CAUTION: there are only three ways to stop the motor, disconnect fuel line, choke the motor, or remove all plug wires. DO NOT rev the motor higher than 1500 rpms. it can cause a run away motor that cannot be stopped, other than disconnecting fuel source, but in the mean time, may throw a rod, etc.

also look at this: >>> http://www.boatpartstore.com/page30.asp

 

[Jleibold]

Re: '78 Evinrude 115 has no spark

Thanks for the reply.

So, will that eliminate the possibility of a bad switch?

I also noticed in the article that it was for 'screw terminal type power packs'. What exactly are those? I don't have any terminals on my power pack. It's all enclosed. Is there a way to get it apart?

Thanks again.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: '78 Evinrude 115 has no spark

the screw terminal is a buss bar the wires attach to coming out of the power pack. yours has it.

yes, it takes the ignition switch, neutral safety switch, bad wire in harness all out of the equation.

 

[Jleibold]

Re: '78 Evinrude 115 has no spark

Got it.
Thanks for the help.

I will report back with what I find.

 

[ezeke]

Re: '78 Evinrude 115 has no spark

The 1978 V4 recreational engines don't have screw terminal power packs, they have two CD4 powerpacks.

Each powerpack has one incoming four wire amphenol plug, one incoming two wire amphenol plug and one outgoing two wire amphenol plug serving two ignition coils.

Check the bottom of page 34 and page 35 of the above referenced link for correct troubleshooting instructions.

 

[Jleibold]

Re: '78 Evinrude 115 has no spark

Ezeke was correct. No terminals.

The problem ended up being the kill switch wire was shorted. I couldn't determine where the short was. I know it wasn't the ignition though. So, I just rewired the kill switch wire, and that took care of the problem. A new wiring harness will be coming in the near future.

Thanks for the help guys.