92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

[poida]

Hi all
I have a E30RLEN.......1992 30 HP, rope start evinrude.
I purchased it after it had been sitting for possibly a year or more. The engine was on full tilt and had some water under the hood. It started and ran well on the muffs so i took it up the river. It refused to go much past and idle on that first run and dropped straight to one cylinder on anything more than mild throttle.
Once i got it home i checked that each cylinder jumped a 3/8 gap. They both did but it did look like a fine blue spark to me, i expected a bit of a thick strong spark comparing this to my 9.9/15's that i have played with over the years. This could be normal or i could have a weak spark, however it is jumping a 3/8th gap. I also pulled the plugs with a rubber glove and pliers, one cylinder gave me mild shocks (nothing like an old seagull that nearly belted my arm off once) and the other nothing, both time the motor ran on one cylinder on the muffs. I also cleaned up the earths and connections.
On the second outing it dropped out a few times but came good.
Today i headed out with a timing light and a battery out of my quad on after a few fishing stops i gave it full throttle for a period of time. After a few minutes is started cutting in, out, in, out, in out repeatedly and quickly but my timing light refused to work on either cylinder, it might be dead or it might need more than 12v to operate, or perhaps a stronger spark. I eventually backed off to quater throttle, stopped and had a fish then she was fine all the way home.
I am thinking power pack or coils, any ideas or suggestions???

 

[racerone]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

It may be overheating.----Do a compression test first.--------------Check fuel hoses / fitting for air leaks.

 

[poida]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

Don't think its overheating. Do they drop to one cylinder to protect themselves??? It has new fuel hose's on the tank and a new bulb. It seems like a cylinder is dropping in and out, not so much running out of fuel that should affect both cylinders. Yep compression test is a good idead before spending $$$ ill check it tomorrow.

 

[boobie]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

I'd still keep looking at the ignition system. You can try cdielectronics.com for good trouble shooting procedures.

 

[poida]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

Thanks Boobie, and thanks for the id on this motor, i'm not wanting to order incorrect parts yet alone one that arn't buggered, i might just have to bite the bullet and order a power pack and coils.

 

[poida]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

110psi on both pots.
I checked my timing light on my cheap quad, and my car and it worked well.
When i put it on the boat it did not work, i moved the clamp around on the HT lead and it worked in places but it was very hard to get a consistant flicker. It would go on permanantly (this happens if you put the clamp on backwards) or cut in and out, it was very hard to get a flicker. It could be a weak spark or a well insulated HT lead???? Perhaps a stuffed HT lead???
I am not sure i could trust the timing light on the water to diagnose this.
I might go ohm out the ht leads.

 

[poida]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

Ok, the bottom ht lead has f/a resistance and the multi meter beeps in beep mode.
The top lead has resistance all over the shop and where it joined to the coil it had what looked like grease. I cleaned it up but it is still all over the place and won't beep. Could the dirt/grease be where the missfire was occurring or has some bellend put grease on the electricle contacts?
Anyhow i might have found the problem, thoughts???

 

[AlTn]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

I'd swap the top and bottom leads and see if the miss moves to the bottom cylinder, if it does you may have found the culprit...if the miss now occurs on both cylinders, the high resistance of the top lead may have affected the coil or pp circuitry for the top cylinder...you could them swap the known good coil to the top and narrow it down even further

 

[poida]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

Hi AITn, i am having trouble isolating it to the one cylinder.
I took it for a run this arvo, had a great time and all was going well untill at the end under full throttle it did the on, off, on ,off repeatedly and needed to be bought back to idle to stop it. I got the misses to bring it back to the problem and pulled the top spark plug boot, the engine continued to run on the one cylinder and the spark plug boot shoot a nice blue spark to the engine latch. After putting the boot back on the plug she then ran perfectly. I could not get it to miss again.
I am unsure if this means that the miss/problem is on the top plug or not, It seems to point to this cylinder as the motor did not cut out but the drop in throttle when you pull the boot would drop it back to idle where the problem goes.
Starting to get really frustrating.

 

[poida]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

I bought a power pack 2nd hand and fitted it. The problem still exists. Don't know why they put them under the flywheel, perhaps they wanted the block to have a nice neat look about it.

 

[AlTn]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

ok...seems the external coil for the lower cylinder is ok < engines runs with upper plug wire off > and that leaves the external coil for the upper cylinder in doubt, only if the used pp was known to be good...I suggest you swap the two coils and see if the lower cylinder is now the one that misses as that would narrow it down to a coil only problem

 

[ondarvr]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

Coil issues can come and go, sometimes from a loose wire, sometimes with heat, sometimes with high RPM's, sometimes for no apparent reason, but they are the lowest cost, easiest to change, easiest to test item you can find on the motor. Swapping coils from top to bottom is the an easy test, so is getting an inline spark tester.

 

[poida]

Re: 92 30hp intermittant cut out to one cylinder

Great, i will try to find a cheap coil and swap them out.

 

[poida]

Well the problem/problems are sorted. I took her for a run with a temp gun and had swapped the bottom coil on land as this was the harder one to remove on the water. I did not get far when she cut out. I then put the bottom coil to the top leaving the new one on the bottom. The ***** then refused to start or splutter at all and i was ruing the mistake of leaving the spark tester at home. Realizing i had no spark on either coil i disconnected the kill switch and she started back up on one cylinder. I then was able to pull the boots and found the top coil was dead, (no spark on too cylinder) replaced the coil and she is running a treat. I now realize that when it was cutting in and out at full throttle it was the kill switch as this causes a violent stop start that has torn all 3 engine mounts to pieces. The drop to one cylinder is alot more gentle. So the bottom coil was intermittantly dropping her to one cylinder and the kill switch was also shorting out.

 

[AlTn]

glad you got it sorted out...multiple ignition problems at once can be head scratchers