[68 Evinrude model 3 cylinder model 55873R]: {not starting} Hey All, well I finally got my manual and some time to actually spend on my motor. I checked the compression in all three cylinders and yeeha, they all came in at about 125 psi [give or take 2 lbs whew. Well now I know she has great compression. So the next logical step was to pull the flywheel and check the points [already pulled carbs and cleaned completely, mixed new fuel and checked fuel pump all okay] Upon pulling the rotor and looking into the points area specifically the rotor shaft I found a most unusual thing, there was this for lack of a better word a tension "crap arm type" spring laying down below the points plate {not tight} but wrapped around the shaft, just sort of free floating with only the tension of the "crap like" prongs around the shaft. Could this have been shorting out something like 2 of the 3 cylinders? to describe this spring even further it's about the thickness of a large paper clip with crab arms type bend and a small 3 coil spring that creates a small amount of tension for the crab arms {the inner arms are worn where they were obviously rubbing upon the shaft}. Does this belong somewhere else in the electrical system? I looked in the manual {exploded Picture} and it did not show this spring anywhere, however in one section it described a spring called the "reverse cut-off spring". I looked over the points and one set looked pretty burned. I pulled the set and used electronic contact cleaner on it and hooked it up to my ohm meter [@200] and when closed I get 001 and when open I get the natural disconnect or 1. {for ref the rotor looked a little dirty but all in all okay, I cleaned it} One question I have is when I was testing the spark earlier I had 1 cylinder with spark [top one #3]and the other two [middle #1 & bottom #2]had no spark at all, I mean zip. I chocked this up to probably points [since I don't really know much about 2 point systems]. So am I on the right track here or could this mysterious spring I found be the culpret in this trobleshooting problem? I would appreciate any other little wisdoms or experience to assist in this mystery. Thanks in advance Denny
