1947 Gale 5 hp. Royal..Plug wires have electric, but plugs wont spark?

[hemlockman]

Hello to all! My father gave me this outboard that he found at a yard sale.. Now..here is the problem, the spark plugs will not fire..but after I got frustrated.. I grabbed the spark plug wire..and pulled the rope... Zap! I got electric.. I grabbed the 2nd plug wire..pulled the rope.. Zap! We cleaned the carb, pulled the fly wheel..everything looked clean.. there is electric going through the spark plug wires, but will not generate spark throug the plugs? We put the spark plugs on another boat motor..and they work fine. What could cause this? Thank you.

 

[steelespike]

Re: 1947 Gale 5 hp. Royal..Plug wires have electric, but plugs wont spark?

Try holding the plugs against the block with insulated pliers. You should have a blue spark
that you can hear snap.You can also get a spark tester it should jump at least 1/4"
If you haven't pulled the flywheel and cleaned and checked the points and set at .020.
You need to.Those old systems are very reliable.

 

[hemlockman]

Re: 1947 Gale 5 hp. Royal..Plug wires have electric, but plugs wont spark?

Thanks Steelespike, but I already held it against the block, and there is no blue spark.. I did try the spark plugs on another outboard, and I get the blue spark. I did get shocked twice when I hold the spark plug wire on this Royal outboard, but the plugs refuse to spark? If I can get these plugs to spark, I know it will run. There is electric running to them, the plugs are good..just wont spark.

 

[steelespike]

Re: 1947 Gale 5 hp. Royal..Plug wires have electric, but plugs wont spark?

Unless you can tell the voltage with your body getting a shock doesn't mean much.
If you haven't tuned up the system you can't be sure what you have.
You can feel a shock off the points if you touch them at just the right time.
Couple of other things to check.The wires could be corroded at both ends.
The flywheel key could be partially sheared.
Try holding the wires on the motor that fires the plugs.

 

[F_R]

Re: 1947 Gale 5 hp. Royal..Plug wires have electric, but plugs wont spark?

Pardon me while I laugh. You'll never catch me checking spark by grabbing the wires. I HATE getting shocked.

That said, you can stick your finger in a 120 volt house bulb socket and it will knock you right out of your shorts, but it won't run an engine.

All joking aside, it takes about 20,000 volts to spark a plug. Reckon you had that much?

The most common cause of no spark on those motors is dirty breaker points. Take them apart, degrease everything, and clean each contact individually with some 400 grit waterproof sandpaper. Put them back together and when done, adjust the gap to .020" at their widest opening.

Do one set of points at a time so you have a sample of how they go together. EDIT: and don't lose any of those little insulators!!!

 

[hemlockman]

Re: 1947 Gale 5 hp. Royal..Plug wires have electric, but plugs wont spark?

Thankyou F_R... I think you are the only one that read my post! I explained the situation twice, and the only response I get is to hold the spark plug next to the engine block? Thank you.. I will try this hopefully tomorrow. I grew up at a farm with electic fences..so getting shocked at this point doesnt matter!! I will follow up with the results. Another thing that I noticed tonight..We actually got the original owners manual for this motor..its states that the motor comes standard with Champion J-9J spark plugs.. I looked at this motor and it has J-7 spark plugs..Do you think this is the problem?

 

[F_R]

Re: 1947 Gale 5 hp. Royal..Plug wires have electric, but plugs wont spark?

No. But J8C is probably the closest you will find in today's stores.

 

[steelespike]

Re: 1947 Gale 5 hp. Royal..Plug wires have electric, but plugs wont spark?

Don't mind you taking anothers suggestion but::
saying you didn't get any help is just wrong.It takes me forever to do a post so it kind of irks me when I get slammed.
You obviously didn't read my post About adjusting and cleaning the points.Looking under the flywheel doesn't get it done.
I also followed up with info about plug wires and the flywheel key.
If you didn't tighten the flywheel nut right the key could shear also if the crank and flywheel bore are not clean and dry it could shear.

 

[hemlockman]

Re: 1947 Gale 5 hp. Royal..Plug wires have electric, but plugs wont spark?

F_R Thank you! Got it running! Runs like a champ! You wouldn't believe the spark now!