check your Grounds

Just an FYI.My 85' 20hp Johnson died on me awhile ago on the river.Was cruising fine and when I slowed down started to run very rough and died and would not start.After changing plugs I gave up and my electric motor got me to the dock.At home I found I had no spark at all!After exhausting all other troubleshooting ideas I checked continuity of my CDI ground wire to the block and had "none".Took bolt out that holds CDI and connector for gound and cleaned it up even though it was not very coroded and back to having good spark.Was afraid my CDI was bad at first.Got lucky.Hope this helps someone.

Grounds can be a pain to diagnose. I have seen loose grounds do strange things. If your vehicles electronics are doing things that seem impossible, it may be a loose ground. When you turn on your headlights and the wipers start working it may be a loose ground. When you turn on your radio and the turn signals start flashing it may be a loose ground. That is my experience with loose grounds.

KMix...oh so true.

My "tell" when to look at the ground first..is....when more than one thing is malfunctioning...it probably is the ground.

After all, what else is connected to EVERYTHING?

Ha Ha richg99

Add motorcycles to the mix as well. Ground gremlins...hate 'em

KMixson said:

Grounds can be a pain to diagnose. I have seen loose grounds do strange things. If your vehicles electronics are doing things that seem impossible, it may be a loose ground. When you turn on your headlights and the wipers start working it may be a loose ground. When you turn on your radio and the turn signals start flashing it may be a loose ground. That is my experience with loose grounds.

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Usually if it does these things it is the body control module.