Intermittent timing reading

[Ksaltar28]

I’ve recently just purchased another boat powered by a 1980 Johnson J70ELCSA. I’ve been racking my brain and asking friends with outboard knowledge but now I’m stumped. The boat would fall on its face initially when I first got it the guy said it had been sitting a while. Well 3 new carb kills later it still wouldn’t idle. On the off chance you could shift it fast enough it would take off like a rocket and cruise. I finally got it to idle and check the timing at idle and the advance. Then it would never get up on plane like it was severely under powered. Checked the coil packs. Number 1 cylinder was bad. Got the new one coil pack and installed it. Then it wouldn’t pickup the timing. So I’m losing my mind. I pulled the flywheel cleaned all the magnets and pickup coils. It now will read for a good 3-5 seconds 4 degrees and then it disappears for a good 10-15 seconds and comes back. I have no clue what to fix at this point. Power pack? Timer base? I tested the ohms on the timer base all within spec.

 

[Boobie]

Possibly bad power pack.

 

[faztbullet]

Put your timing lite pickup on the orange primary wire on #1 cylnder and retest...

 

[Ksaltar28]

Put your timing lite pickup on the orange primary wire on #1 cylnder and retest...

Ok I’ll try that in the morning thank you a lot.