My dad and gradfather bought this Glasstream new in 89. This month it acted up on his first day of fishing vacation and he had enough. Went out and bought a new boat and gave the old one to me.

Engine is a 1989 Evinrude v4 90hp "E90TLCEM"


Says he was running across the water pretty good and it just lost power. Will crank and idle and he limped it back to the dock.

Checking the timing at idle the light is showing me what would be between 40 and 50 degrees BTDC. Advancing the timing lever by hand does produce a change in timing (further advancing the reading)

Timing spec is: Full advance @ 5k rpm: 28 BTDC
Idle: 4 BTDC

Compression:116-118 on all cylinders
Nice blue spark from all coils

Timing base? Power pack? Stator? He says there was no prop strike or FOD that he is aware of so I do not think this a sheared woodruff key. The engine has to try very hard to crank over and this tells me that the timing reading is most likely correct as timing that high should make life hard for the starter.


I have searched every arrangement of words that I know how and I can not seem to find anyone with a similar problem. I would really like to get this thing back on the water. My grandfather's health is dwindling fast and I would love to take him out on the lake one more time.

Thank you in advance guys.