Armature plate binding

[William MacNeill]

Hello all.

I just finished rebuilding the powerhead on my 1960 evinrude fisherman 5.5 and am now reassembling. Everything has gone smoothly until now. The armature plate is binding when tightening down the 4 screws. If I back them off a little the plate frees up and spins as it should. The retaining ring is installed with the bevel down and the brass support plate is greased and installed as before. It was brought to my attention it could of been the coils causing the binding but upon putting the original ones back in the armature is still binding. Not sure what I am overlooking. All I can think of is that the support plate was damaged somehow and now warped but it was in a box the entire time the motor was apart. Any suggestions?

[frankr]

Some people advocate distorting the brass ring in an effort to snug it up.  That may be what happened here.

[William MacNeill]

Ignition turned freely prior to rebuilding the powerhead. This is what is stumping me. The retaining ring goes on bevel down and then the support ring with 4 screws. Line up support ring, install armature, and then the 2 coil screws and the 2 plate screws get tightened. I evenly tighten the 4 screws until snug. I am not torqing down on the screws. As soon as short screws are snug it binds. I guess it is possible the support ring is warped and causing the binding but again in a box the entire time motor was apart. Has anyone else come across this?

[olcah]

Is it possible that one of your armature hold down screws is too long?

[Matthew Pieklik]

Spark plug wires binding underneath?

[wedgie]

When you re installed the original coils did you make sure to line them up with the bosses on the plate?

[William MacNeill]

Replaced the screws thinking the same thing from a junk motor. Same result.

Pulled Spark plug wires out and still binding

The coils are lined up with the bosses.

 

[Matthew Pieklik]

Possible the screws for the support ring got mixed up with other screws? Sounds like the support screws are the common  denominator. Is there any scratching where the screws would come thru the ring on the block?

[William MacNeill]

I took 4 screws from a junk motor,  2 long for the coils,  2 short for the plate.  The long ones do not bind but both sets of short do. I must of damaged the brass ring and its out of true. I’ll take one of another motor and report my findings.  This is frustrating.

[fleetwin]

I have found that some of the new screws supplied with OMC coils are just a touch too long.  And, it is not the long screws that are troublesome, one of the shorter ones stuck down a bit too far and rubbed on the brass support ring.

1 user thanked author for this post.

William MacNeill

[Author]

Posts