90 hp johnson...wet under hood now not running so good

[roonie]

One of my water hoses developed a crack and began to spray water all under the hood furthest away from the carbs at the rear. The engine began to hesitate. Ive done a comp. test and they all check good at 120 psi. Since the water hose cracked, i have had the engine hesitate and try to clear and go like it did but its gotten worse. Last night after dark i took the plugs out (looked fine) and spun the engine. It seems the one side has week spark. The engine ran perfect before the water sprayed under the hood. Any thoughts on what may be happening? thanks in advance

 

[interalian]

Check your power pack grounds and coil grounds. Check the rubber Amphenol connectors into and out of the power packs to make sure they're clean and dry. Remove the spark plug cables and clean/dry them (I degrease mine using pumice hand cleaner/water, just like washing grease off my hands), put a little silicone dielectric grease on the terminals and reinstall.

 

[emdsapmgr]

Your engine appears to have dual power packs-one for each head. As a test, you can swap them, then determine if the weak spark moves to the other head during the swap. If so, you may have a weak power pack. When running the engine at night, you might pay attention to the two lower plug wires. They are in close proximity to the two lower cowling latches and sometimes will spark to ground due to close clearance issues.

 

[roonie]

Is it possible that the spraying of water could short out the power packs. When she was bucking i really think some of the spraying of water got took in by the carbs....light spray was everywhere really. As i say she tries to clear and run like new but lags again...seems almost like an elec. short of some type. We will know more tomorrow.

 

[interalian]

Power packs are potted/sealed, so I wouldn't expect problems except for grounds and maybe interconnects. A little spray getting into the carbs wouldn't be bad unless so much got in to hydrolock a piston. Let it dry out in the sun as well as the above tests/cleaning/swapping.

 

[jimmbo]

Fresh water I hope? Water may have gotten under the flywheel and is hindering the trigger and/or the stator .Go borrow your wife/daughters hair drier, set the heat to very low or off and fan to high and spend some time directing it under the flywheel. By some time, I mean at least an hour. You can always pull the flywheel if so inclined.

 

[roonie]

Yes...freshwater.All great advice. Ive pulled the hood and let it sun dry for a couple/few days to no avail. By the looks of how much space is between flywheel and base..theres really not a lot of room for water to get in there...i will try the hair blower trick and get back.thanks so much so far

 

[roonie]

Just an update.....i got this engine running sweet again. All i did was clean the ends of the conn. going to the coils from the power pack..small brown wires. I just dont understand how spraying water from a tiny crack in a cooling hose could accelerate this issue. Perhaps the moisture was enough to create a barrier between the corrosion and the contacts and make it even worse than it already was. Thanks for all the help folks