Hello, John Talley here with boats.net, and welcome to the third in our series of videos
on troubleshooting problems with your outboard ignition system.
In our first video, we took you through the components of the ignition system,
and then in our second we showed you how to test the spark plugs.
So if you need to see those, we have a link in the description below so you can go check them out.
But in this video, we're going to take a look at some of the other parts of the ignition system:
light, fuses, switches, ignition coils, and your stator and regulator rectifier.
So if you're ready, I'll walk you through and show you what need to look at, so let's go.
Okay guys, let's start with the simple stuff first. You don't want to go plunging
into everything to find out the problem was the fuse, so let's check that first.
If your outboard has a fuse on the ignition system, start there.
Pull it and take a look to see if the filament is burned out, because replacing a bad fuse is
a really easy fix that can get you up and running again quickly. The next easy fix you may want to
check is the tilt kill switch. Now your outboard may or may not have this, but what it does it will
kill the motor if it's raised up too high-- like if you hit something and it kicked the motor up
or if it's not down in the water enough to pick up the water for cooling. So to find it,
you're going to look on the tilt trim assembly or the mounting bracket. Now to test it,
get a multimeter and set it to low ohm test, and then connect the two wires coming from the switch.
Now hold the switch horizontally like it would be in the motor if it were trimmed down,
and then you should not see any current running through the switch. Now hold it at an angle like
the switch would be if it were tilted up, and you should see something flowing through the switch.
Now if you see in open or closed when it shouldn't be, you'll know that you'll need to go ahead and
replace that switch. Now some units are going to have a kill switch, others will have just a
trim limit switch, or a trim sensor switch. This particular one has a sensor switch,
but if your kill switch was actually being used, it would be in this general same location. But you
just want to hook up your leads to your voltmeter to it and just see if either it goes through a
variance, like this one goes from 4 ohms up to 232. So that tells me that this particular sensor
is working. Now the switch is either going to be opened or closed, so it would either
be close to zero ohms or infinity, which would represent, you know, an on or an off. But this is
typically where you're going to find it on just about every outboard if it's equipped with it.
Now the other switch you're going to want to check-- and this will only apply to smaller
outboards-- is the one at the end of the tiller handle. It will have a wire running to your CDI,
and that's basically a ground for this test. Get your multimeter, set it to ohms,
and then touch the negative side to a ground and the positive to the wire coming to the CDI.
Now if you're seeing continuity here, the switch has failed and you need to get a new one.
Now to double check this, activate the switch or remove the lanyard to see if
you get a low reading. If you don't, then again you're going to need to replace it.
Okay, so you've made it this far. Next you want to check the plug wires.
Now in another video, we showed you how to make sure the plugs were okay and getting current,
but you want to do a closer inspection here on the wires if they've got any sorts of damage
on the insulation that can short out against the engine casing or anything else and really inhibit
the current. You also want to check for corrosion around the boots and at the end of the plug wires
where they connect to the plugs. That can cut out your power. Now here's a little test you can do
to see if the wires are damaged: connect your multimeter to each end of the plug wire itself,
set it to ohms, and then hold the wire taut and straight. Your meter should read zero or close to
0 ohms. Now with the multimeter still attached, bend the wires and see if the reading changes.
If it does, that could mean that the wires inside are failing and you should replace it.
On this particular Yamaha unit, the wires are actually permanently affixed to your coil,
but we can still check the wires in the same fashion by setting our meter to ohms
and then bending the wires to see if it changes. Now you would do this a little bit differently
if you were able to just remove it from the actual coil. You would just go end to end. Now
on this particular one we have to go through the secondary coil-- the high tension coil.
If you're good so far, you want to check out the ignition coils next.
There are two coils: you have the primary and the secondary, and we want to test both of them,
and to do that we're kind of going to be doing what we did with the ignition wires. So here let's
start with the primary, and that's going to mean disconnecting the positive and negative terminals
so there's no power running through the coils. And what you're going to do is set your multimeter to
ohms again, and connect the positive and negative terminals. Now a service manual is going to tell
you the resistance you're going to need to see on this test, and if you're not getting that,
then the coil should be replaced. Now to test the secondary coil, you want to connect one end
of the multimeter to the negative terminal and the other side to the spark plug that comes in,
and check the reading to see if it matches the specs from the manufacturer. Next you're going
to want to check the stator. Now to do this, you're going to need to know what the resistance
range is for your particular stator, and you can get that from your service manual as well.
Now set your multimeter for that resistance range and see if you get a pass. A low reading
will probably mean you have a short in the windings, and if the reading is infinite,
then you have a break somewhere in there and you need to replace the stator in either case.
Now next up is the regulator rectifier. Now when it's working right, it only allows current to
pass one direction, and that's a good way to tell if it's working or not. Now there are two
wires going in, the positive and the ground, and you want to disconnect those as well as the three
wires that are going to the stator providing of course that it is a three-phase setup.
Now you want to set your multimeter to the diode test and then connect the positive side
of the multimeter to the negative terminal on the regulator rectifier, and then connect the negative
side of the multimeter to each of the three connections coming out of the regulator rectifier
to the stator. You should get a positive forward reading in volts probably around the 0.5 area,
telling you that the current is actually passing through the diodes as it should.
Now if any of these three tests fail, you're going to need to replace the unit, then you want
to retest it in the opposite direction to make sure current is not flowing backwards. This time,
connect the positive probe of your multimeter to the positive terminal of the regulator rectifier,
and then the negative on the multimeter to each of those three conductors coming from the stator.
You should see an open loop, which tells you that no current is traveling backwards. Now of course
if you get a reading that there is current going through, well once again you're going to need to
replace it. Now earlier we talked about the kill switch on the tiller handle for smaller outboards,
but on a bigger unit you're going to want to check the turn key switch itself. Now to get to the back
of it, you may need to remove it, but here you're going to set your multimeter to ohms once again,
connect the positive side of the multimeter to the shut off terminal wire,
and then the negative to a negative ground source. Now turn the switch on. If you get an open circuit
with the switch in the on position, the switch has gone bad. Well all right guys, there you go
just a few things on a checklist that you can take a look at if your outboard won't start.
Well listen, if you need parts for your boat, why don't you come see us at boats.net and we can get
you taken care of. If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the section below
and I'll do my best to answer them. We just want to say thank you for shopping
here with us at boats.net, and we will see you in the next video. You all have a great day.