95 Evinrude Intruder intermittent spark

[Dougm6714]

Hello, I have a 1995 Evinrude intruder (E150GLEOM) that runs great, till it doesn’t, I have a very inconsistent no spark if I want to go fishing at 6am on a cooler/damp morning she will not start no spark I trouble shoot everything with my oem manual but find nothing to be the culprit, if I get mad and drive home and try to start it she will 9/10 fire up and never miss a beat the rest of the day. Maybe I just have the only boat that doesn’t like to get wet,

This is my first boat bought back in June 2019 found out that the owner has been dealing with this issue for the past 3 years, now a little back story and repairs that have been done. Hunting down the issue

the boat wiring has been redone all new ignition, switches new wires from the battery’s and engine back, I had to install a starter from it seizing up (thought i finally found the issue from it dragging. but it randomly appeared back 2 weeks later with no spark) I’m running the correct plugs/wires my battery’s are a few years old but still show good on a tester but I am planning on changing things out this spring, I thought I found it one time i was going through the trouble shooting and unplugged the port side square connector on the power pack (kill side) and the thing fired up plugged it back it to kill the engine, went to start it again with the plug still attached and it started up and never messed up again till a few weeks later when I wanted to fish in the morning, tried to do the same thing again but it never started after I unplugged the port side connector, so back to square one again. I feel like I’m missing something very simple, how can I have the only boat that doesn’t like to be wet from the morning but can fish on Lake Erie in a crazy storm and fire every time. Could I have a power pack, stator or rectifier failing? I noticed last night after cleaning the boat out getting ready for this year that the rectifier has a little blackish/orangish ooz down the side of the block, I thought was just someone got messy with some sealant but I don’t think that is the case anymore

i tried to think of everything hopefully I didn’t miss anything and thanks in advance

[Jonboy2542]

Welcome to the forum. I understand completely on how you feel. My boat has been going through a strange problem as well. First thing a manual is the best thing that you can have. A rectifier should have anything oozing out of it. My understanding is that a rectifier generally does not cause a no spark. Usually it will contribute to a bad stator and/or power pack which will cause a bad spark. You can always disconnect the rectifier and see if you get spark.

hopefully championman or 316jughead can verify. They are the smart ones

[tnsportsman86]

Mine was doing the same thing. It turned out to be the stator. I replaced the powerpack, stator, and optical sensor all at the same time. Fixed my problems.

[Dougm6714]

Mine was doing the same thing. It turned out to be the stator. I replaced the powerpack, stator, and optical sensor all at the same time. Fixed my problems.

Would your just randomly lose spark or did you just eventually loose spark altogether? Thing that gets me the most is I have such a small window to diagnose it because it just starts working and everything checks out lol!

[316jughead]

Did you do the new wiring or did the previous owner? The next time it won't start, has no spark, follow the manual on how to test the stop circuit.

[Dougm6714]

Did you do the new wiring or did the previous owner? The next time it won't start, has no spark, follow the manual on how to test the stop circuit.

i did the wiring but the kill switches have all been removed it will start in gear and everything it was removed when I got the boat I plan on reinstalling all the safety stuff when I get a chance but all the other wiring I did, I plan on putting two new cranking battery’s in it and replacing the hot and ground cables from the engine to the battery’s just to start fresh, im here in Ohio and we’re about to make a big trip down to Lake Chickamaugua and guntersville, at home if it finally decided to die on the lake I have people close enough to get me back to the ramp if need be, but going to these new lakes it’s kind of nerve racking never knowing but usually it’s only in the morning if she starts that morning your good for the rest of the day or even the next week

in my mind if the stator or power pack we’re failing I would notice it in drive ability or better us getting a charge, but I’m not very educated in outboards I’m a diesel tech by trade sometimes the old saying a bolts a bolt and a nuts and nut don’t hold true ��

[316jughead]

How do you turn the motor off? Start in gear? Sorry, I'm not ready for any nightmares right now, good luck.

[Dougm6714]

How do you turn the motor off? Start in gear? Sorry, I'm not ready for any nightmares right now, good luck.

when I bought the boat the switch panel had all been replaced went through all that and found all the safety switches were removed no neutral safety switch, no kill switch I have since bought all of it to replace it all and reinstall it so things are correct and safe, just with this trouble shooting I know since it’s all removed I don’t have a bad switch or something, the guy removed it all thinking they was his issue I can only assume because after I bought it I found out this wasn’t a new issue.
As to shutting it down it’s on a fighter pilot switch and when you flip the switch off it grounds and shuts the engine down

i also apologize if I made it sound like I didn’t care for the safety features I do, I knew I never had the kill switch but after I really started getting into the boat and realizing how stuff was I found that it would start in gear because it had the neutral safety switch removed since I found all of this out I haven’t had it back in the water with my work schedule and the late summer heat wasn’t fit for fishing at the time

[Gatchmo5710]

Sounds like a powerpack.

[omcforever]

Sounds like a powerpack.

Lets throw some parts at it and see what happens????

[Dougm6714]

Lets throw some parts at it and see what happens????

i have assumed it’s a power pack throwing a random ground possibly when wet wish I had a real way to test it and the stator but with such a short window of it not working kind of a pain

[BigFishSteve]

When it doesn’t start, do you get nothing but turning over and not trying to fire? Or does it try to start and stumble?

hook up a visual spark jump box and video the sparks with the slow motion feature on your phone camera. Look for missing fire. Left be right. Entire sides. Etc. I’ve got crazy stuff going on with my 98. Still haven’t figured it out.

Good luck. Keep the faith. It’s so frustrating.

[Dougm6714]

When it doesn’t start, do you get nothing but turning over and not trying to fire? Or does it try to start and stumble?

hook up a visual spark jump box and video the sparks with the slow motion feature on your phone camera. Look for missing fire. Left be right. Entire sides. Etc. I’ve got crazy stuff going on with my 98. Still haven’t figured it out.

Good luck. Keep the faith. It’s so frustrating.

mine will crank and crank but never fire, that’s a really good idea with the slow motion in your phone for the spark checker I’ll have to keep that one for the memory bank! Hope you get your figured out as well it sure is frustrating!

[Marinadan]

Make sure your battery is good. At least 9.5-10v while cranking.