Home › Forum › Ask A Member › 1957 Evinrude 18HP will not start › Re: 1957 Evinrude 18HP will not start
MM: you say the plug wires are correctly installed, but you replaced the plug wires, correct? How do you know they are correct? Would be easy to get this confused. Usually though, if the plug wires are reversed, the engine will backfire or kick back at least. Have you tried swapping the plug leads? Will only take a few minutes…
Spark may jump across the plug gaps while cranking with the plugs out, doesn’t mean you have good spark with the plugs installed under compression. You had the mag plate apart, did you set the coil air gaps properly?
Those stop switch leads can surely cause a problem, but that would usually show up on a proper spark test. You must be very careful with these leads, they are bound to get chafed/grounded/broken after some use, which will cause problems.