I have a 1989 Evinrude 200XP with 500 hours. I bought it used at 450 hours. It ran very well last season with two exceptions - 1) at one point it began to lose about 1200 RPMs at WOT, and 2) the Quickstart system began intermittently kicking in and remaining on after the engine was warm and at idle. <br /><br />Problem 1: Mechanic tested and ruled out coils as the source. He then recommended changing the stator. Before doing so I replaced the old ignition wires, which I was going to do anyway. The problem disappeared.<br /><br />Problem 2 remained through the end of the season. Over the winter I sought and received some excellent advice, including help from members of this forum <http://www.iboats.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=28;t=019656>.<br /><br />I took the boat out of storage this weekend and closely examined the engine. Although I didn't remove the flywheel, I could clearly see what appeared to be drips of melted plastic under both of the stator coils. Accordingly, I'm now thinking that the problems may be related that the stator was in bad shape at the time I experienced Problem 1; that the new wires made enough of a difference to mask the stator's weak spark; and that the timing ring may simply be sticking because of melted plastic.<br /><br />I'd like to know what would cause a stator to melt, and whether anyone thinks those problems might be related. The engine has been well-maintained, and as far as I know it has never overheated. Compression is an even 90lbs all around (cold tested this weekend), and it has always started easily and run smoothly. <br /><br />One other seemingly inconsistent detail: I've never noticed any charging problem. The boat has two batteries.<br /><br />I'm going to remove the flywheel next weekend, so I'll post an update. Thanks in advance for any advice or information.
