1989 30 HP Johnson kill switch

[lingcodmatt]

Hi,

Just recently purchased a 1989 30 HP Johnson with a number of problems but fixed all but 1. If the kill switch wire is hooked to ground I have no spark. Tested the switch (no continuity through it when not pushing the switch and continuity through it when pushing the switch) How can it kill the coils when I ground it with no continuity going through the switch?

Matt 

[ElderSparky]

By design, when the “kill” wire is grounded, the ignition is disabled. When the engine is running, the “kill” wire (black/yellow) will have about 300 volts DC on it. It doesn’t take much contamination in the switch to provide a leakage path causing the ignition to shut off. 

[lingcodmatt]

So even though I have no continuity in the run position the kill switch is still bad?

[ElderSparky]

Possible. I assume you are measuring no continuity with a conventional ohmmeter. That is applying no more than 9 volts to the switch circuit. 300 volts applied can have very different results. 

[lingcodmatt]

Makes sense. Just not enough voltage going through to make it short.

Thanks.