60hp johnson question

[stinkbait85]

Bought a 60hp johnson motor over the weekend for $100. Has good compression but no fire. I started checking it out and there they were...points! Holy crap I hate points! It is a mid 70's motor. It is a 3 cylinder motor. My question is this. Can it be converted to electronic ignition? If not.. It is for sale

 

[F_R]

Re: 60hp johnson question

That would be a 1970 or 1971. Hate points?? Might as well put it up for sale then.

Actually, it is electronic ignition, the points just act as switches to tell it when to fire. But it isn't a very good electronic ignition system. The distributor is the crummy part.

 

[stinkbait85]

Re: 60hp johnson question

Okay okay I will rephrase that. I hate points ignition. Can it be converted to a cdi style ignition?

 

[ogdenministries.com]

Re: 60hp johnson question

I have the same motor and I just bought a set of points for it. Only one place distributes them now and they have 158 sets left after that all that will be left is find a place that has some still in stock..... so im thinking like you, im gonna try to change mine and fast. Oh and my points was $78 bucks to my door. Worst part is if your having problems in the wiring like I was you could go through a couple three sets every season!
Ps: If you do decide to sell the engine ill take it. Ive spent four years investing money into mine so I am not going to give up on her,., so im trying to collect all the parts I can get, and a whole engine would be nice. lol

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: 60hp johnson question

You have what is referred to as "battery CD ignition." OMC went to "magneto CD ignition" in 1972, on the "triples." The basic difference is that you have a set of points, a distributor, an amplifier and a single ignition coil. The later ignition has a stator, a timer base, a power pack and three iginition coils.

I love the three cylinder OMCs but won't touch the battery CD models. Even on their best days, these motors don't have great ignition performance and getting parts for them is getting to be pretty much impossible. As stated, points are apparently getting very hard to come by and some of the other parts in the system are already NLA, including rotor assembly and rotor cap. The amplifiers are still available, but cost $378.

I've also heard the question about converting one to a newer form of electronic ignition many times, but have never seen an answer that suggests that it can be done practically and for a price that is justified.

If it were me, I would dump the motor, unless I wanted the gearcase, shift system wiring, etc.



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