Problems with Nissan kicker

I have an 05 Nissan 8hp kicker that is electric start and pull start. Runs like a dream….normally. It’s been surging this week, and I installed new plugs, and it’s still doing the same thing. It’s also dying at idle, which it never does. When the old plugs were taken out, there was a ring around the white area on one of them. Guy at NAPA said I probably needed new wires. Well, it’s not that easy on this motor. There’s a coil unit that has both plug wires attached to it, and from the coil unit, one wire goes to ground, the other is an orange wire that connects to another wire. So….do I test the coil with an ohmmeter and see if there’s an open? Easy enough I’m sure. I’m guessing I’d test from the orange wire to both plug leads?

Any other suggestions would be welcome. I’m sure it’s an electrical issue of some sort. I hope the problem shows itself easily and the coil (Which I’m guessing is the problem) isn’t too expensive. Any info is appreciated. Thanks–

Gas?

I agree gas or moisture in the line and or in the bowl. give it a major tune up and run seafoam in the tank and you might be back in action.

Good luck

Agree with TR

Dump the gas and run seafoam thru it.

I’m fairly confident that it’s not a gas issue. Gas comes from the same tank the Yamaha is on, and no issues with it all. Also, from the time this problem developed to previous when it was running fine, nothing changed.

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Dump the gas and run seafoam thru it.

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X2 I agree use seafoam and good gas.

Seafoam

I’d be looking at carb issues before electrical issues. 205 outboard is too new to make coil or cdi issues very likely.

Means nothing that the primary motor is running off the same fuel supply. You could have sucked up a piece of grit or other contamination that’s now lodged in the carb. Also, bigger engines are more tollerent of some water in the fuel, esp if it’s EFI.

Put a spark tester on and check spark and both plugs. I’m assuming when you replaced the plugs you looked up the spec and gapped them accordingly? No, .030 is NOT the universal gap setting for all engines.

I’d try the Seafoam and then take it out and give it the old Italian Tune-up. Drive it around the lake like you stole it for half an hour. See if that works it out.

If not, I’d tear that carb down and do a deep clean. My guess is you have grit in one of the low speed circuits.

Grouse

My bet is on a clogged pilot jet. It is a very small orifice and my have a scale clog. I pluck a wire from a wire brush and hold it with a vise grips and clean out the pilot jet. Today’s gas doesn’t gum it interacts with some Carb metals and forms a tough calcium like scale. These clogs need mechanical cleaning. No sea foam or chemical will disolve it. In future drain Carb when motor is not to be used for any more than a week.

I should have a little time today to look at it. I’ll dive in and see what I can see.

Ok, here’s what I’ve gotten done. I took the carb out and dropped the fuel container off the carb assembly. This is the under side of it, and there is a jet on the right side that’s still inside, as you can see. I unscrewed it and took it out, and I’m guessing that I should be able to see more daylight thru it than I currently am. So, I’m soaking it in carb cleaner right now, and I’ll see if I can find a needle or brush wire to get in there. Tiny, tiny hole, so I’m guessing this is the jet that’s being referred to. The other jet, in the middle, came out fairly easily and seemed clean. I could see thru it, but sprayed it pretty well itself.
I also ohmed the coils between the orange and ground, and had 000, so I’m thinking that’s a good thing. Still doesn’t explain the ring around the spark plug, but the nature of this problem makes me wonder. Was more of an overnight problem than an ongoing thing. But we’ll clean these out and see what happens. Not a bad thing to give it a cleaning anyhow, I figure.

I think you’re headed in the right direction. Symptoms of a clogged pilot / low speed / idle circuit which is metered through that small jet are poor or no idle, surging at low speed, and since it is always contributing to the overall fuel ratio it will if clogged cause a lean condition which will show up as a white insulator on the spark plug. Bad news as prolonged running will damage motor.

If you have it use compressed air to blow out jets as well after you soak and wire them.

That’s pretty much exactly what my motor was doing, so I have a good feeling about this already. Will find out in about 12 hours.

Out of curiosity, what did the bottom of the float bowl look like on the inside upon disassembly? Any rust flakes or grit? Another thing to possibly do is add a fuel filter in the line that supplys your kicker.

I added an external fuel filter, and also have another inside the cowling. I’m thinking of taking the smaller one on the motor out and just running an external, but I’ll leave it for right now. This has been the set up for 3-4 years, maybe more.
Inside of the bowl didn’t look too bad. A lot of the gas dumped out before I could disassemble it, but I didn’t see any trace of debris. I sprayed it out and cleaned it out anyways.

It sucks trouble shooting a problem but once you figure it out you and all the rest of us will be a little wiser because of it. I’ve thrown my share of money at my vehicles doing the same thing. Most recently one of my quads.

Good luck and Thanks!!

Thanks for sticking with me guys! I ran the motor a little tonight on the lake, and it sure sounds like maybe it’s cured. We’ll find out tomorrow since I’ll be doing some hardcore trolling for hours. But tonight I let it idle for a while, and it refused to die. A very good sign.

I was convinced it was something electrical with those plugs and such, but I will admit I kinda forgot about those jets in the carb. Kinda a pain to get it off the motor, but when you have it in your hand, it wasn’t too bad to deal with.
I’d say we’re good for another 500 hours, so here we go. Thanks again guys!