90 Sport - No Spark |
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tapenick
Senior Member Joined: May-17-2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 185 |
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Posted: July-25-2014 at 8:12pm |
My 90 Sport has been running perfect for years, hit the ramp today and it wouldn't start. After some debugging (gas? spark?) found no spark from the coil. Removed the old one, had oil on it so pretty sure it was toast. Replace it, still no spark. Where should I look next?
Tom |
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SNobsessed
Grand Poobah Joined: October-21-2007 Location: IA Status: Offline Points: 7102 |
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Do you have points or EI?
If points, replace them. Either way, get the meter & find out where the electricity stops (for instance, is the coil getting power?). |
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“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
Ben Franklin |
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tapenick
Senior Member Joined: May-17-2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 185 |
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Some sort of points replacement EI that was in the boat when I got it. (six years ago) Embarrassing question - should have +12V on the "+" side of the coil when the key is on?
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SNobsessed
Grand Poobah Joined: October-21-2007 Location: IA Status: Offline Points: 7102 |
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The only embarrassing question is the one you should have asked just before the big crash
If you have a ballast resistor, it should be about 9V at + of coil. If no ballast resistor, then 12V. |
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“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
Ben Franklin |
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phatsat67
Grand Poobah Joined: March-13-2006 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 6157 |
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If it is EI it will probably have power at the coil. Sometimes points close and ground the coil and you won't see power feed at the coil positive. Remove it from the coil for a proper power reading.
You can test your EI with a simple test light. Remove the wire from the EI that goes to the negative side of the coil. Connect your test light to a positive feed and insert the other end of the test light into that EI negative coil wire. Crank the engine, the light should flash on and off at the same pace as the engine cranking note. If it densest flash the EI isn't working. |
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tapenick
Senior Member Joined: May-17-2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 185 |
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No +12V on the purple wire. Have +12V on both sides of the big breaker on the back of the engine. Ballast resister is falling apart but it is bypassed for the EI. (both purple wires on the same side) I looked under the dash, didn't see anything obvious. Grey tach wire has 3V on it, don't know if that's weird or not? Heat index is gonna be 100 today, help me Tom Cruise! :)
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tapenick
Senior Member Joined: May-17-2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 185 |
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Just checked the resistance of the ignition switch - 0 ohms between red and purple (as expected) and 33 ohms between red and yellow/red. Looking for a ground under there to check V... does CC use black for ground?
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Bri892001
Grand Poobah Joined: September-27-2008 Location: Boston MA Status: Offline Points: 4947 |
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Yup, CC does use black for ground.
Sometimes those little led indicator lights can have black wires too though, so that can be confusing. Keep in mind your key switch only is dealing with the positive side of things. Ground your test light or Voltmeter to the negative terminal of your battery and check for positive voltage at the key. |
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gun-driver
Grand Poobah Joined: July-18-2008 Location: Pittsburgh, Pa Status: Offline Points: 4127 |
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Don't understand checking the key you said you have power as far as the coil?
Did you replace the coil with the same "exact" coil? Zach If you’re running 12V direct to the coil don’t you need to use an resisted coil since your bypassing the ballast resister? And I’m with Zach check power at the EI it may have sh!t the bed. |
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tapenick
Senior Member Joined: May-17-2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 185 |
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No power to the coil.
Wondering the same thing about the resisted coil... gotta get it running first though. |
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SNobsessed
Grand Poobah Joined: October-21-2007 Location: IA Status: Offline Points: 7102 |
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Some EI's automatically limit the current flow.
I have prestolite EI & don't use resistor. Tom - a quick check is to manually ground out the (-) side of coil (with key on) & see if it generates a spark when you relese the ground (same as points do). |
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“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
Ben Franklin |
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tapenick
Senior Member Joined: May-17-2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 185 |
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Oh boy... this is embarrassing but I'm gonna tell it just in case it might help someone in the future. I was tracing wires from the switch... could barely tell where it went next. Got my head out from under the dash... kill switch. Looked at it a little closer, wasn't completely on so the switch wasn't completely depressed. :) Oh well, that old coil was gonna go bad soon since it was leaking. Might have saved myself a tow!
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Gary S
Grand Poobah Joined: November-30-2006 Location: Illinois Status: Offline Points: 14096 |
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Character building,not embarrassing. Embarrassing is if you took it in and paid to have it "fixed". Glad you figured it out
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Bri892001
Grand Poobah Joined: September-27-2008 Location: Boston MA Status: Offline Points: 4947 |
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Glad you found the problem
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