1969 Evinrude 55Hp engine Help

[rogerrabbitis]

Hello I have a 1969 Evinrude 55Hp (Model no#55973) it has electric shift and will not start. I have acquired the boat and motor from a friend and they were told it was the Amplifier that was the problem. I have been cleaning up and testing the motor and after Replacing and fixing a lot of the wiring and broken connections and when we tested the Amplifier it is showing that it is good I still don’t seem to get spark. Now two things I am not sure about at this point is I found a wire going up from the Starter Solenoid Towards the fly wheel and was grounded to the block. Right by it was a small Plastic piece with two metal pieces come out from it and it has something that runs along the bottom of the base plate of the distributor cap. I don’t know if this wire is supposed to be grounded or attached to the plastic piece..??. The other thing I don’t know is if my Motor is in Neutral. When I spin the Prop the flywheel turns Even though I have the button for Neutral Depressed also the when I just try to start the engine to test for spark it will turn over in Forward/Neutral/Reverse. To me it seems like it is in gear but I have no idea how to get it out or fix it so that the shifter works if any one has some ideas on the wire or how to get it into Neutral it help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[mrc]

Re: 1969 Evinrude 55Hp engine Help

The spinning crank with the prop shaft in neutral <br />is to be expected with a electric shift lower unit.<br />As the crank has to be turning fast enough to pump<br />the lower unit oil to disengage forward gear.<br />(hydrolic pump).<br /><br />As for the spark, I'll be guessing here as I<br />don't have a manual for that HP, but...<br />There should be a wire leading from under the flywheel<br />to the amplifier, this wire goes to the points and<br />it should ground out once per cylinder per rotation<br />of the flywheel. the other wires lead from the coil<br />to the distributer and from the spark plugs to the<br />distributer cap. Outside of the amplifier, it's<br />a pretty dirt simple system to track down (especially if you have a manual <br /><br />Mike

 

[rogerrabbitis]

Re: 1969 Evinrude 55Hp engine Help

Thanks for the info on the shifting that explains that.<br /><br />There are 2 wires coming down from the distributor that go down in to the coil and the amplifier and they are fine and we tested the points and there good.<br /><br />Now all I have to find out is There are two skin color wire that comes off the Starter solenoid (other than the + and - from the battery) One of them goes back up the warning harness and looks like heads up to front of the boat the other one comes out and up the side of the block towards the flywheel and was grounded out (not vary nicely I might add) It did not look right. I found it under a bolt that held down this metal peace witch had this plastic piece on it that had two metal things coming out of it and it seems to run along the bottom of the distributor. I have seen it in some of the diagrams and it does have a wire attached but it does not give me a name or where that wire comes from that attaches to it if any one can help me on what this wire is or if it should be grounded it would greatly help me out...

 

[mrc]

Re: 1969 Evinrude 55Hp engine Help

If it is from the starter solinoid, I believe that<br />wire goes to the starter interlock on the throttle.<br /><br />Usually a microswitch which prevents cranking the<br />motor with the throttle open too far.<br /><br />Mike

 

[rogerrabbitis]

Re: 1969 Evinrude 55Hp engine Help

Wow...That sounds like it. I found that wire Grounded to the block I don't know if that would cause a no start problem or it would just disable that option..?? I am going to charge the battery tomorrow night and see if I can get it to start and I am going to hook that wire to that plastic piece and hopefully with all the bad wiring I have fixed it will start. Keep your fingers crossed and Thanks for your help ad I'll keep you posted....thanks again<br /><br />Mike