Tarinazo
Seaman
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2019
- Messages
- 55
Hello everybody, I have a 1436 jonboat with a 1987 Mercury 6 hp outboard that worked pretty well since I got it about a year ago. At first it started bogging down every now and then, I suspected a dirty carb so I cleaned it (I'm pretty handy with motorcycle engines, this is my first outboard), after the carb cleanup the problem seemed to happen more frequently to the point having a bogged down engine from the go. Then I blamed it on cavitation (I'm new at boating) so I tilted the engine all the way up so it could come down again at new position, guess what: engine worked great! everytime the engine bogged, I changed the position and sure enough the engine would work again... until that stopped working (obviously it wasn't cavitation).
I then suspected it was something other than cavitation or the carb so I checked for spark on both cylinders and found out only one had it. I swapped the cbales going from the switch box to the coils and it turned out to be the the green wire with a white stripe the one that had no fire... this ruled out the coils to be the problem.
After this, my main suspect was trigger or switch box... funny thing is, if I tap the SB with a screwdriver (wich I did in desperation, like with old TV's) spark comes back to both plugs.
Thing I've done so far:
Checked reading with a multimeter on coils, trigger and stator... all checked good.
Checked for rubbed/pinched wires... no visible damage
Disconnected the black/yellow wire to rule out cutoff switch
Cleaned carb
New spark plugs
Sanded all ground contact points on engine and coils
The engine starts on the first pull every time, even on just one cylinder. I even detached the SB from the engine while running so I could move all the wires coming out of it so to find a false contact... nothing, only the taps on the SB's body seems to get it going.
I'm trying to find a solution to this other than just buying a new SB because they are hard to find in Mexico... where I live.
I then suspected it was something other than cavitation or the carb so I checked for spark on both cylinders and found out only one had it. I swapped the cbales going from the switch box to the coils and it turned out to be the the green wire with a white stripe the one that had no fire... this ruled out the coils to be the problem.
After this, my main suspect was trigger or switch box... funny thing is, if I tap the SB with a screwdriver (wich I did in desperation, like with old TV's) spark comes back to both plugs.
Thing I've done so far:
Checked reading with a multimeter on coils, trigger and stator... all checked good.
Checked for rubbed/pinched wires... no visible damage
Disconnected the black/yellow wire to rule out cutoff switch
Cleaned carb
New spark plugs
Sanded all ground contact points on engine and coils
The engine starts on the first pull every time, even on just one cylinder. I even detached the SB from the engine while running so I could move all the wires coming out of it so to find a false contact... nothing, only the taps on the SB's body seems to get it going.
I'm trying to find a solution to this other than just buying a new SB because they are hard to find in Mexico... where I live.
