Ignition Woes! 1977 200 Horse Johnson

#1 12-28-2006, 10:26 PM

Hey all!
I gave my Wellcraft to my brother so it would at least stay in the family instead of selling it. And lucky me I got to work on it today during my vacation. I was trying to get the 1977 200HP Johnson V6 outboard running as smooth as when I had it.

Here are the symptoms. It starts up fine. I have it timed at 5 BTDC at idle and 28 BTDC at Full throttle. When it hits full advance, about mid throttle the port side coils stop firing. Is this a power pack problem or the stator and timer base? Unfortunately, I don't have all the fancy tools and testers that the book calls for. Just a timing light. I didn't check the color of the spark. I just know that the timing light works and then stops working on the port side cylinders when I get near full throttle.

Thanks,
Buenos

THEFERMANATOR · #2 12-28-2006, 11:16 PM

You might to check and see if this engine has the shift interupt switch. It kills half the cylinders to allow the engine to shift in and out of gear easier on the big V-6's, I believe it shut down the port bank. I know the loopers had it, but not sure if the crossflows did or not. You can also try swapping the power pack from one side to the other to see if the problem swaps to the other side.

reelapeelin · #3 12-28-2006, 11:48 PM

...Good idea, Nator...

...and you can take a flashlight and look around under the flywheel to make sure the magnets are still attached...

#4 12-29-2006, 12:34 PM

Thanks guys, In the trouble shooting section of the manual I didn't see anything about the shift interrupt switch but I wasn't really looking for it either. Where might it be hiding? By the throttle quadrant or the power head?

A couple of years ago when I pulled the boat of of storage, I ended up swapping the power packs because one wasn't working right. Don't remember which one but when I swapped them out they both ran fine so I figured it was just some corrosion that I cleaned off. Maybe it was a bad power pack and I just got lucky for a while.

Thanks,
Buenos

THEFERMANATOR · #5 12-30-2006, 01:32 AM

The shift interupt switch would be mounted directly to the shift arm if it has one. Here's a link to a pic of one.

http://www.powerheadkit.com/images/432620.jpg

#6 12-30-2006, 04:34 PM

Thanks, I'll check it out tomorrow.

Buenos