TOPIC: 1956 Evinrude Lark 30 weirdness

OK carb done...check! she ran smooth
installed new points and condensers had beautiful spark.

Started it in the tank all was going well then in the tank before I headed to the lake lost spark on cyl 2 still had spark on cyl 1 COOL.
Pulled off the peek a boo in the fly wheel and tripled checked the gaps on the points. Cool everything nice at .20. Got spark back on cyl 2!
Tried to start her again. No......now NO SPARK on either.
No kill switch in this motor you use the choke to knock her out. The coils look like replacements and they are not all cracked.

Any ideas? Something has to be causing a ground somewhere yes??

I Think NOT on the grounding issue. When I first pulled the flywheel off this old egg beater the woodruff key was broken. I figured someone tried to put the broken pieces in and let her run like that. She was dirty under the flywheel so I replaced the points and condenser and clean thing up while in there. I got a new one and I replaced the woodruff key this morning. Now after losing spark again I went out and pulled the flywheel again and the new woodruff key was snapped just like the first one I found in there. Spark plug # 1 was sooty and black the other clean. Would H20 in cyl # 2 be the culprit?? Anyone ever run into this? Anything particular about these model Evinrude's that anyone is aware of??

Did you clean points before you installed them? How about coils, did you replace?

points, condensers are new coils are fine. The problem may be how and where the flywheel and key way line up. After the motor runs a bit she seems to sheer the woodruff key so you then loose your spark. The key way on the flywheel and the crank shaft look good. No rounded edges or anything.

If it is breaking a you are lucky to get any fire. Clean the shaft well with sand paper and do likewise with the flywheel wipe all metal and sand out....torque the flywheel at 60 t0 65 ft lbs...run for a few mins and re torque

yea when I pick up the new Key on Monday that is my plan of attack. She ran beautiful for about 20 to 25 min in the barrel then she went awry.

Check out pages 42 to 44

s790.photobucket.com/albums/yy189/adc2242/Manuals/ignition/

If that has a the small woodruff key It has to be tighten down to 105lbs or flywhell will spin. If its the big wooduff key its 65lbs. I spun one on a 70hp and a 40hp bucause the flywheel has spun because I didn't tighten to specs.
Mike aka pathfinderz1

If that has a the small woodruff key It has to be tighten down to 105lbs or flywhell will spin. If its the big wooduff key its 65lbs. I spun one on a 70hp and a 40hp bucause the flywheel has spun because I didn't tighten to specs.
Mike aka pathfinderz1

it has the long shallow woodruff key. try again tomorrow

Replaced the woodruff key with a brandy brand new one. Made sure everything was clean and dry in there re checked the new point settings etc....
The torque rating for the flywheel is 65 foot lbs I brought it to 65 lbs ran it for a while then shut her down and brought the torque to 73 lbs where I will leave it. I did that since the nut is not new. So far so good. Hopefully she will hold on the lake for her final adjustments. I had a heck of a time removing the fly wheel the 1st time when I found she had no spark in the 1st place. When I got it off finally I found the original woodruff broken.
Fingers are crossed!!

www.youtube.com/user/mrboatguy63?feature=mhee

If it does it again I have a flywheel for a 57...you are welcome to ...however it is a bit dif.....I will let you go to the AOMCI "Ask a Member" and see if it will fit...... They all know that I have more Bigtwins motors then one should have over there

The flywheel tapers need to be " lapped " with some valve grinding compound.

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The fit of the tapers drives the flywheel and the key locates it for proper spark.

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A standard " woodruff key " may not be the same as a factory original.

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Check twice for a proper fit on the key !!

I did exactly that Professor. I got an OMC proper key for this motor this morning. The fit was good and snug she went together clean. That little key was 8.30 plus 6.25% tax!!

P.S. thank you all for piping in with help!!