"Calif Bill" wrote in message hlink.net...
"jason" wrote in message
om...
Have a 83 mercruiser i/o 3.0l in a wellcraft. did a little maintance
on it getting ready for the season. The starter was acting up last
year and i pulled it and put in a new one. It is cranking fine, hits
good and hard every time. But i was getting no fire. I stated at the
plugs and traced back to see if i can see a spark. ended up at a bad
coil. Pulled it and heard the swishing sound, so unless the coil on a
marine motor is diffrent it's eletolitic fluid menbrane had busted.
replaced it with a coil form auto zone. Here is my problem, we still
have no spark
Pulled the volt meter out and found this:
With the key off:
we have nothing on the + 0.0v
we have nothing on the - 0.0
With the key in the on position:
we have 12v on the +
!!! we have 12v on the -
From my understanding, and without a service/maintenance manual on
hand,I believe this to be very wrong. Has something changed with the
starter cylanoid?
with all the wires on the cylanoid, there are only 2 that fit the
smaller poles. Tried reversing them, and got no cranking. So they are
in the correct postition. I did notice a momentary firing when i first
started the engine after putting the starter in, but nothing since
then. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
TIA, JAW

If the points are open, you will get 12v on both terminals. As you turn
over the engine, the (-) terminal should go between 12v and 0v. You can see
if there is spark, by grounding the (-) terminal that goes to the
distributor. When you remove the ground, you should get a spark. Pull the
distributor cap and see if the rotor is turning and the points are opening
and closing.
Bill

Bill - there are 4 wires in question, 2 that are fixed together on the
+ side and 2 loose on the - side. not sure of the color pattern on
the + side, but the - has a gray and a black. With the key in the on
position and all wires disconnected from the coil. i see 12 on the
pair and 12 on the gray and 0 on the black. the black leades down to
underneath the distributer. I will test your hint when i retun home
and see if the rotor is spinning. i and guessing that it will not be
the case. Can i crank the motor with the cap off the distributer to
see it spin?