1975 Evinrude 85hp Ignition problems

[dodgeman67]

I took the boat to the lake yesterday and we had a great day till the motor acted like (what I thought) it was running out of gas. Switched to a new tank and could barely make back to the dock. In the last couple of weeks I have replace impeller, rebuilt carbs and decarbed the engine. Today I started the motor, ran fine for a couple of minutes then started missing terribly. I did a compression test and got identical 100psi on all four cylinders. Did a spark test and had strong 7/16" spark on the port cylinders side and nothing on the starboard cylinders. My question is do two coils usually go down at the same time or does this sound more like a powerpack issue? Thanks in advance.

 

[F_R]

2 coils at the same time might be possible, but unlikely. Probably the power pack or timer base/sensor. Or the wires between timer base and power pack. Good luck with the guessing game. Or check it out with a DVA meter.

 

[dodgeman67]

It was the timer base. Retainer ring was melted. Seems to be running good now.