No spark, No Fun

Road King Cole

Road King Cole

God
Well, I hoped I wouldn't be posting in the repair section this soon, but here I am. I was so excited to have yesterday off to try another day of fishing in abnormally nice weather with just me and my dog. After launching the boat, my 470 mercruiser wouldn't start. Once in a while it would stutter. I checked the points and they looked good. Pulled a plug and broke it. Noticed it had gas on it and looked old. Checked the boat and no spare plugs. OK, put the boat back on the trailer and off to Napa. Napa was no longer open they directed me to the only other place which was auto zone. They only had one plug (typical, I hate autozone). Thinking that it may have just been flooded, I went back to the boat ramp and put the plug in. Still wouldn't start (Yes I learned to make sure the engine starts before taking it off the trailer).

Now that it was getting late, time to give up and bring it home. Took the bike to a real parts store and got a complete set of plugs.Put those on, still won't start. Get the wife to turn it over so I could check for spark on a plug. Only saw it spark once after many turns. Although the points looked good, I remember seeing a tune up kit (dist-cap, points etc). Turns out the cap was used but there were new points and condenser. So I put the new points and condenser in (the dist-cap looked fine). No change. Had the wife come out and turn it over with the cap removed and I was not seeing any spark at the points.

Unless I missed something, I am thinking it has got to be the coil. I wished I had thought about making sure it was getting voltage last night before it got dark.

Right now I am sending the wife out to get a new coil and maybe try putting it in tonight so I can sleep better. If I get it running, maybe try going out again on Saturday…and just maybe my crabs will still be alive.

Is there anything I might have missed?

Sorry for the long post...

thanks,

rkc
 
I was told by a co-worker that I wouldn't see spark with the dist-cap off. I am used to seeing spark working on my old bike (which doesn't have a dist-cap).

I still should have seen a good spark at the plug....
 
I had a similar problem on my 3.0 on my old boat.....not sure if yours is set up the same but the tach gets it signal off the coil, I had a short in the tach that was killing the spark. After replacing the distributor, points, plugs, plug wires and coil I finally disconnected the wire from the tach to the coil and it fired right up.
 
Thanks, that was a "good one"...

I heard the shop had to order a coil which will arrive tomorrow. So I will wait until tomorrow night to get back at it.
 
The first thing to check with ANY boat with an ALPHA outdrive is the shift interrupt switch. It isn't hard to disconnect it and it rules that portion out.
 
after you disconnect the shift interupt switch, check for voltage at teh + terminal on teh coil, you should have around 12volts cold, after it warms up the voltage will drop from the resistor wire in the harness, if you have voltage and the shift switch isn't grounding the coil, remove the cap, bump the motor over, you should see sparks at the point contact, if you don't, bump the engine over till they are closed, and rub the contacts together, you should see some sparks at teh contacts, put everything back together, don't forget the rotor, and you should have spark at the plugs. DO yourself a favor, replace teh points with a pertronix conversion kit, its easy to do and the engine will run better, you won't have to worry about points again
 
I will be leaving early from work to work on the boat tonight.

"shift interrupt switch", sounds like that could be it too. Seems I am getting intimate with my engine and service manuals much earlier than I expected.

I called a couple dealers about the conversion kit and one was adamant about not selling them anymore because they die after 2-3 years. Perhaps I will stick with points. Just can't seem to think where my timing light is....
 
over the years, I've probably installed more than 50 pertronix conversions. I only had 1 go bad, and it was because teh coil leaked oil out thru a rust hole in the bottom, then teh resistance on teh coil droped, buring out the ignitor. I suspect the dealer was having an installation issue
 
Thanks SP. I think I will end up going electronic. Is it just remove the points and install the new pickup\sender? Do you keep the same resistor wire that runs to the coil? Wouldn't timing need to be checked again?

BTW, I didn't have much time to work on the boat last night. Tried the new coil, checked the other wires for ground, still no start. I now think it could be the wire from the coil to the points.
 
The ones I've done you simply remove the points and condenser. Bolt the pick-up in using the screw for the points and slide a plastic drum over the distributor shaft(some new ones don't require this part though). You leave the coil hooked up like before except you connect the black wire to the negative side of the coil where the points wire used to be, and hook the red one to a 12V+ side. If the coil had a resistor leave it installed and hook that red wire in BEFORE the resistor. Low voltage to the pick-up module WILL kill it. You should re-check the timing, but chances are it will be REAL close.
 
on the pertronix you replace the point plate(real easy) when updating the delco type distributor, the instructions are easy to follow. While you have the point plate off, check the advance weights and springs, make sure they aren't broken or stuck, spray them down with a little lube(CRC656), but not too much. Check voltage at purple wire, it will run on less than 12 Volts(its in the instructions), but I allways un did the wrap on the harness, followed the wire back to the resister loop, cut it out and replaced the wire to the coil, I figured I'd eliminate any future issue with the resistor wire. Check the resistance on the coil, and check the timing when you're done(4 degrees btdc)
 
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