ignition problem

[chopper6322]

1952-54 evinrude lightwin (i know that thanks to bassboy lol ) 3hp got spark on one plug but not the other, now i know next to nothing about motors so excuse me on my terminology and feel free to tell me if i'm way out in left field. when i look at the contacts under the flywheel there looks to be two little probes like in a sparkplug, the side that is working as little gap and the side that isn't working has no gap, i'm assuming the spark is suppose to arc there and no gappy means no sparky correct? i tried to adjust with the little screw there but it moves back and forth never opening a gap like they are stuck together. but i can seperate them easily with a small flat tip screwdriver...any ideas?

 

[bassboy1]

I don't know if you saw this in the other thread, but I found out that the motor is a '53. Those things you see are the breaker points. Probably wouldn't hurt to replace them, especially if they look burned. The reason the screw doesn't move it, is that is a very fine adjustment. Not enough of one to move it away from the other side a noticeable amount, as it adjusts in the thousanths of an inch. Now, the crankshaft should be egg shaped at that point. That is why one point is open, whereas one is shut, because one is on the fat egg, and one on the skinny egg half. Spin the crank, and the other will open.

 

[chopper6322]

anything special to know before i take off the flywheel to change the breaker points? i assume it has to come off right?

 

[bassboy1]

USE A PULLER. People often think they can get by with hammering, or prying it off. Nope. I have a broken flywheel in the shop, from some genius previous owner. Luckily I had a parts motor with a good flywheel, and lucky I noticed the cracks, or we could have had a bigger problem.

 

[bassboy1]

BTW, did you want the parts diagram? I think the feller is emailing it to me. PM me with your email, and I should be able to send it to ya.

 

[sccamper]

The end of my crank broke, few years ago. Was told it was because the flywheel was pulled w/o a puller. I did have the flywheel off but used a puller. Might have been from previous owner.

 

[chopper6322]

wow the owners manual i found online for it said just use a hammer, since i don't have spare flywheels laying around, i'll take your word for it thanks a lot guys

 

[chopper6322]

in case anyone is still wondering i got the motor started today, it was just a bad spark plug wire, now i just have to figure out how to adjust the high speed and low speed knobs on the carborator, the book just says move them until it runs best, but i'm not sure when it runs it's best, i don't know what a good sounding motor is as oppose to a bad sounding one