Re: wiring 1960 evin.40hp
Yup, that sure sounds like it. <br /><br />I'm a little confused here. Are you saying one of the black wires that runs up underneath the flywheel to the ignition system is connected to the vaccum switch corner?<br /><br />Perhaps I should explain the vaccum switch a bit. On these engines, there's a problem that can happen if you suddenly snap the throttle closed, or if you rev the engine hard in neutral. The engine can take off on its own, and spin up really fast. To help with this, they put on the vaccum switch.<br />Normally, the vaccum switch is open. But if the manifold vaccum goes up high enough, long enough (say, cutting the throttle while the engine is spinning fast) the switch closes. What this does is kills spark on one of the two cylinders by grounding out one cylinder's points. It does this through the saftey switch so it will work only if the throttle is near low speed.<br />The starter solenoid is also grounded out through the safety switch, so (by chance) the connection is made at the base of the vaccum cutout switch.<br /><br />The keyswitch stops the outboard by connecting the two cylinder's points together. This short-circuits both top & bottom ignition systems, killing spark. So two wires must be run to the key switch to turn the engine off.