Home › Forum › Ask A Member › Coil Testing for Johnson HD25
- This topic has 10 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 1 month, 2 weeks ago by
Tubs.
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March 27, 2026 at 10:32 am #312250
Hi, I’m working with the students who you might see posting on here, I have 16 students fixing up 8 motors… Thank you AOMCI admins for setting us up!
We have a 1947 HD25 and had spark from one plug but not another. We took out the coils to put a meter on them, and compare them, to see if we can find any differences and try to locate the problem. Attached is a photo. I have some experience, but not a lot, so we could use some advice.
In the photo, I assume C/D are the primary coil, and A/B is the secondary. On both coils, C/D reads about 1 ohm, so it has continuity. But I can’t get any reading from A/B on either coil. Is this normal? I’ve tried two digital ohm meters, but I’ve read an old analog meter might be best.
Thank you!
March 27, 2026 at 10:42 am #312260I’ve got a follow up question, I’ve read some posts that say to use solid instead of stranded spark plug wire. It seems to me, because the wires have to move with the mag plate, stranded would be better. Thoughts? Does it make any difference?
March 27, 2026 at 11:08 am #312268Hi Stewart and Hi to the “Other 16”!
Welcome! I hope all 16 of you post about what you are working on….and I hope you include pictures! We love pictures!
Solid wire? Hmmmm….I’ve never heard that. I always use the typical 7mm copper stranded wire. Lets see what others have to say.
Have you come across this resource yet?
http://www.pochefamily.org/outboard/Coils.htmChuck
March 27, 2026 at 11:45 am #312281solid may eventually break from flexing which is why strand 7mm wire is preferred and in any event would not cause a problem.
Copper is preferred as a metal because if flexes better .. conductivity wise well imho any metallic wire with 0 ohms is 0 ohms . I have used Belden automotive universal metalic wire kits (never carbon high res.) with boots when it was cheap…. Today well it is not cheap anymore !
some your local bike or mower shop can sell you a few feet
Joining AOMCI has priviledges 🙂
March 27, 2026 at 12:11 pm #312290Tractor Supply sells ignition wire sets with spark plug boot nolded to end of wire,, If theres is enough roomfor the boot it is cost effective as there are 6 wires with molded goots in set plus some extr wire and etc, The wire does not know if it is on a farm tractor or an outboard. Absolutely correct wire for either application,
Sourcing repair material for old outboard is sometives much easier than you might imagine,
Good Luck
Louis
2March 27, 2026 at 12:16 pm #312292
You want to be very careful with the wiring on this coil as the solder connection at the coil can become loose. There is no available coil that will fit to use as a substitute.
A "Boathouse Repair" is one thats done without having tools or the skills to do it properly.
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March 27, 2026 at 9:31 pm #312391In the hope of clairification .. your first post about spark plug wire. There are two kinds of SP wire, wire core and carbon core resistance “wire”. Use wire core for our outboard motors never resistance type… and the wire core is always multi strand copper.Never heard of solid wire core SP wire.
Ref Tubs photos… resistance across the primary winding should be about 1 ohm , like you found. The secondary winding being composed of thousands of turns of very fine wire will give a high resistance reading, typically in the range of 6,000 to 75oo ohms. If you are seeing no continuity ( “open”) that indicates that there is a break somewhere in that fine wire. and the coil is bad. Now, I have seen situations where a coil shows “open” but yet produces a spark. What’s happening in such a case is that the high voltage is jumping that gap in the wire within the coil winding. Such a coil will produce a spark for a while but will eventually fail… like when you are out in the middle of the lake.
Joe B
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March 31, 2026 at 11:01 am #313208That is a great resource, thanks! We have two motors (HD25 and QD11) with those old style points, we will go through the test procedures. Thanks again!
March 31, 2026 at 11:08 am #313209I think you are completely right, that would explain why we got intermittent spark from one coil, but can’t get a reading on the secondary coil. Thank you! I’ll try to find some replacement coils. If anyone has two replacement HD25 style coils for sale or donation, please let me know 🙂
I read here that you can’t swap the coils of a different part over the laminated plates, like you can on some, but I still ordered a few cheap lawnmower style ones of amazon that looked like they had potential, just to try. If we have success I’ll update the forum.
March 31, 2026 at 10:49 pm #313343I’m surprised that Tubs said that there are no substitute coils for that motor. Several on here , including Tubs have done pretty remarkable coil substitutions. No harm in trying, and maybe someone will chime in with a workable fix. Keep us posted on progress.
Joe B
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