1989 Evinrude 150 xp- long post

What a headache... Had my '89 Stratos serviced earlier this year. New plugs, impeller, lower unit serviced. Motor has always ran great, just wasn't sure the last time it had been serviced before I bought it last year. First time I take it to the lake it jumps on plane fine and loses a lot of power. Put it in neutral, hammered down again and it seemed like it was only running on a couple cylinders. It would jump forward slightly, but back to barely running. Did this most of the day, so I just fished with trolling motor. End of day I slowly throttled in and it ran like normal all the way back to the ramp.

Next time I take boat out it wouldn't start at all. Cranking battery died tryinf so I replaced that. Went a couple weeks ago, thinking new battery might be it. Wrong. Came home, hooked to the muffs and same thing.

I can hear the click from choke when I push key in before turning. Starter is coming up and turning flywheel, just won't fire up. Primer bulb on fuel line is staying firm. Like I said it has new plugs. I know nothing about motors, but from reading online I've seen everything from power packs to timing... Wife isn't real crazy about taking it back to shop, our first youngin will be here in a couple weeks. Any ideas on what this might be??? If its something bolt on, I can probably YouTube my way through it. Thanks for any advice.

Start with the basics, check compression & spark first. If that's OK we'll go on to the next step. If the motor has set for a month or more at any point we may be looking at carb issues. If the fuel is more than 60 days old at the most we may need to get rid of it.

Make sure it has Champion plugs in it, no other brand. Check compression & spark and let us know what you find.

Ok, it's been a while as my wife and I had our first baby, a little girl. They are doing great, and I finally had time to tinker on the boat tonight. I pulled the plugs, they are champion. They seemed to have gas/oil on them, but weren't gummed up or real black. I had my cousin help me as he's worked on cars and dirt bikes and what not. We wiped the plugs off and tried to start motor, same as before. I the pulled a plug out and reconnected wire to check for spark, nothing. Tried on another plug and wire and it was not getting any spark at all.
I've read a few things that suggest carb problem as well. Does this boat have multiple carbs? If its not gettin any spark, then it sounds like a power pack maybe?! I'm not a very mechanical person, so I try to YouTube my way through this kind of stuff. Any suggestions?

sounds like a stator is bad, but could be power packs or coils if no spark.

Did you have fire on either the port or starboard side of engine & none on the other or none on either side of engine whastsoever ???

I'm pretty sure we tried one from each side. I was looking motor over a couple nights ago to see if any connections were undone and found what I think is a ground wire that was not bolted down. It was on the bottom of Motor. I saw a bolt that was just sitting in the hole(starboard side), not tightened or hand started at all. Haven't tried to start motor yet. Any idea what this bolt and wire might be?

[QUOTE=KyBoneHead;520628]I'm pretty sure we tried one from each side. I was looking motor over a couple nights ago to see if any connections were undone and found what I think is a ground wire that was not bolted down. It was on the bottom of Motor. I saw a bolt that was just sitting in the hole(starboard side), not tightened or hand started at all. Haven't tried to start motor yet. Any idea what this bolt and wire might be?[/QUOTE]

check kill switch