Johnson 115 Firing Question - New to Forum

[gulfmako]

Hello everyone,
Just found this forum and it is great. I have a 1999 Johnson 115 Oceanrunner that is not firing on any of the 4 cylinders. I have researched the forum and ready to start some of the tests of the ignition system. I know to start with the kill switch systems first. Every post says to disconnect the Black/Yellow wire to test this system. Besides simply cutting the wire, how can it be disconnected? The wire comes from the large red plug and stops at the 4 pin connector on the pack. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Johnson 115 Firing Question - New to Forum

Go the easy route...... Simply unplug the large RED connector, remove all of the spark plugs, crank the engine by using a small jumper from the battery cable terminal of the starter solenoid to the small 3/8" nut that energizes the solenoid..... not the 3/8" ground nut.

Test the spark using a tester where you can set a 7/16" gap.

(Spark Tester - Home Made)
(J. Reeves)

A spark tester can be made with a piece of 1x4 or 1x6, drive a few finishing nails through it, then bend the pointed ends at a right angle. You can then adjust the gap by simply twisting the nail(s). Solder a spark plug wire to one which you can connect to the spark plug boots, and a ground wire of some kind to the other to connect to the powerhead somewhere. Use small alligator clips on the other end of the wires to connect to ground and to the spark plug connector that exists inside of the rubber plug boot.

Using the above, one could easily build a spark tester whereas they could connect 2, 4, 6, or 8 cylinders all at one time. The ground nail being straight up, the others being bent, aimed at the ground nail. A typical 4 cylinder tester follows:


..........X1..........X2

.................X..(grd)

..........X3..........X4

If you now have spark, the usual cause is a shorted ignition switch. To test the switch, reconnect that RED plug, then remove the black/yellow wire from the "M" terminal of the ignition switch. If you have spark with it disconnected and no spark with it connected, replace the ignition switch.

Let us know what you find.

 

[gulfmako]

Re: Johnson 115 Firing Question - New to Forum

I have bypassed the plug (thank you Joe Reeves) but still have no spark. I also disconnected the rectifier and still no spark. Could the rectifier still kill the spark if was bad? If the problem is in the stator would it prevent all cylinders from firing? The motor ran perfectly one day and the next morning it failed to start at the ramp(never even hit). One other thing I noticed, the motor will turn over while engaged in forward and reverse gears(Prop turns). I am not sure if it would do this before it died(never tried I guess), but it will now. Would this somehow kill the power to the pack? Not sure where to or how to test for any other problems. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[gulfmako]

Re: Johnson 115 Firing Question - New to Forum

Forgot to mention that it is a OIS 2000 ignition system.

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Johnson 115 Firing Question - New to Forum

Forgot to mention that it is a OIS 2000 ignition system.

I retired before that model came about. I'll pass this off to one of the later year techs.

 

[gulfmako]

Re: Johnson 115 Firing Question - New to Forum

Also there is no voltage on the yellow / red wire going to the power pack. Should there be 12 volts going to the pack? What exactly "tells" the pack to fire?

 

[gulfmako]

Re: Johnson 115 Firing Question - New to Forum

OK there is 12 volts on the red yellow wire when the switch is used, does this mean it will not fire when jumping across the sylenoid(no voltage when I tried to start it by jumping it)? Can the voltage coming to the power pack from the stator be tested using a standard voltmeter or does it have to be tested using a peak voltage meter. I get some voltage doing the orange/black wire - orange wire voltage test, but could not get a reading doing the Brown wire - Brown/yellow wire test(These were done with a standard voltmeter). If I am in fact getting some voltage to the power pack and no voltage coming from the pack to the coils, does this correlate with a bad power pack? I also visually inspected the optical eye and could see no visual damage. I know this is a lot of questions so Thanks in advance.

 

[gulfmako]

Re: Johnson 115 Firing Question - New to Forum

ttt