Ovation - no spark

dnale

dnale

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Joined
Jun 11, 2003
Messages
1,006
Location
South Lyon, Michigan
Ok I know I was planning of selling this sled but I figured a carb cleaning and new pull ripe and it would be running. I did both of them and went to fire up today and I'm not getting spark. I had my my tester on it and I was only getting inconsistent and weak spark. I had one good spark with the tester and it almost started. I thought perhaps it was the coil. I had a spare and swapped it out. Confirmed ground from wire continuity to motor.

I did replace plug caps a while back but can't find the resistance they should measure. Also not sure if there is a way to jump out the kill switch just to check.

I'm pulling my hair out.

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Would unplugging the kill switch be bypassing it? With my Safaris having no spark I've unplugged the key switch as well as the tether. Never had to unplug the kill switch on any sled though.
 
unplug the ignition and the kill switch and check for spark again. if still no spark, make sure or add a ground from the engine to the coil and one to the chassis from the engine. had to reground the chassis on all the old enticers for this issue back in the day.
 
There is a good chance that it is the grounding on your ignition coil. Check by the air shroud for a ring terminal on a black wire. There was a service bulletin on it.

Other than that, check your wiring harness, especially all grounding - black wires.

The manual has some more troubleshooting.

Check the enticer enthusiasts group on facebook.
 
Look under the front of the motor,theres a wire loom that rubs against the sharp motor mount.Common issue on this chassis.
 
There's another issue with Ovations where the ring terminal on the coil ground rubs on the fan intake housing and breaks. There was a technical bulletin about it. It's a very easy fix.

The grounding on these old harnesses is not super mechanically robust. There's a ring terminal ground at the voltage regulator and another at the front corner of the belly pan. You're not going to do any harm in adding a sister ground to some mechanically robust place on the frame with 14ga wire and a crimped on 6mm ring terminal.
 
I disconnected the TORS and added a ground. It fired up but I have something jacked in the carb now as I just wants to run wide open. I can't find my specs on cable gaps either.
 
These are the settings out of the factory service manual for the 89 carb.
Set each air screw to 1.75 turns out.
Then set engine idle rpm using the thumb screw. 1800-2000 rpm
Then lift the oil injection cable up and out of its seat, there should be 1" of space with the cable lifted, I used a dial caliper to check mine.
 
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