Flywheel rubbing ignition coil
 

Ok... I've got a problem. My engine (1991 Johnson 200hp Looper) wasn't dropping back to idle properly so I decided to pull the flywheel and look inside the stator to see if there was any tar gumming it up. First thing I noticed was that 2 of the magnets on the flywheel were out of position. They were loose. Next thing I noticed was that the inside bottom of the flywheel had some grooves worn into it. So I looked at the stator and saw that the coil in the front of the engine (the one associated with the magnito-ignition...one of the spark ignition coils) had wear marks on it that matched the groves in the flywheel. Either it's high or the flywheel is low. Both sit properly with no junk or crud under them... none of the other coils have any scuff marks on them, so that tells me that the one coil is high. How is that possible? Anyone got any ideas?

(I thought about pics as I was writing this, but it's dark and all my tools are put away for the night. I'll take some tomorrow and post them so you can see what I'm talking about)

when the magnets break loose like that, it throws the flywheel out of balance, I've seen it bend the crank snout, causing damage like you've found. Put a dial indicator on the crank snout an check it for run out.

Makes sense... I'll throw an indicator on it tonight when I get home from work. Can I epoxy the 2 magnets back into their proper position on the flywheel? They are ok, no damage to them, and they hold with great force on the flywheel anyways from the magnitizm, so thinking they should be ok. How do I disolve/remove the tar on the stator and whatever it is inside the stator. (The thing that is supposed to move to advance or retard the spark as the engine changes speed)

break clean will dissolve a lot of that stuff, just epoxy teh magnets back in plae, if you have to use a spacer, cut some out of wood to keep the magnets in their proper place

see if you can move the crank side to side, it can damage an upper crank bearing as well

Crank was solid.. tried moving it last night. I did notice that the groove for the keyway in the crankshaft looked very shallow. (meaning that the key looked like it was thinner than the keyway in the flyway). Is that usual? I'll take some depth readings tonight of the keyways.

it aint much of a key way

No, and the keyway is pretty soft as well. Make ABSOLUTELY certain that the crank and flywheel are as clean as possible before you torque the flywheel down or else it will shear the keyway off first time you get on plane(don't ask how I know).

Good to know..thanks for the info. It looked a little thin to me.. I'm used to seeing industrial keyways with half the key in each slot.. This one didn't look right at all.

what he said!