No spark

[Kary]

I have a 1989 Force 125, two weeks ago it started right up with muffs on, when I turn the key off, the engine stayed running. I tried to restart it but it would not refire because the starter went out. I 've put a new starter on, but still no spark. I did notice that the orange temp wire was melted to the head. Please help!

 

[Jiggz]

Are you sure when you ran it on muffs it was getting enough cooling water and did not overheat as a result? Did you see water coming out of the exhaust snout and also at least some misting on the two exhaust relief holes by the motor leg?

With no spark make sure the kill switch is reset properly. If problem persists, disconnect the white wire from the CD modules in the engine cowling from the terminal board. Disconnect the rectifier and try again.If there is still no spark the CD modules, stator, or trigger might be bad.

However, if it starts with the white wire disconnected, you cannot turn off the engine with the ignition switch. Instead, you need to ground the disconnected white wire to turn it off. Mind you, the white wire is charged so make sure you are insulated from the bare wire or terminal.

 

[tommarvin]

We have a 1988 125hp, did you check the circuit breaker on port side below the terminal block, push the black piece on top back down.
Orange wire for overheat alarm melted to head is not good. Had to be a overheat, we never melted our orange wire, came close a couple times,
If this motor is new to you, I would change the impeller like jiggz mentioned.indirectly.
I wish I knew how to disconnect the white wire from the cd modules,to test from the terminal board, i thought you had to cut wires, it would be easy to remove the white wire from the terminal block, do you disconnect the rectifier from the stator or terminal block?

 

[Kary]

No, I never saw water come out of the ports, it always to awhile before this would occur last year on the lake. I bought a new complete water pump kit when I ordered the new starter. The alarm never went off. The kill switch is NO but when I pull the lanyard, sometimes it closes and sometimes it doesnt, still no spark when I disconnect it totally. I did disconnect the 2 white wires from the terminals and also all the wires at the rectifier. I even unhooked two wires on the key switch, I think a purple wire and a white wire that were on the same post. The part about it not shutting off make me think its something simple, but this is my first outboard, so I'm completely lost. That breaker that is on the port side, I tripped it last year but it only affected the trim up and down, is there 2?

 

[Kary]

I did find the second breaker, it was not tripped. I will try all this again tomorrow and a compression check. My gut is telling me there's something wrong with the key switch, am I missing anything there?

 

[Kary]

Problem solved, the water pump was bad and caused multiple wires to melt the insulation and short the system out, wires and water pump are fixed. Thanks for the help!

 

[Jiggz]

Great. Lesson learn is that everytime you start your motor especially with OB engine is always verify there is cooling water flowing before making the runs for the day. This is true both on the driveway with muffs and also at the lake. It takes less than 60 seconds to ruin an impeller if ran dry even at idle speed. Do re-test the hi temp alarm to make sure it works. You can do this by simply grounding the orange wire and you should hear the buzzer go off. Or if you really want to op-test it, pull it out and place it in a hot water with a thermometer and it should start going off at 160 degrees.