On Aug 14, 1:25 pm, Gene Kearns
wrote:
On Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:00:35 -0700, JamesE
wrote:





I have a 1988 Sting Ray with a Mercruiser 3.0 liter. Lately I have
been having some trouble with the timing. I will set the timing and
it will start right up and idle well, but then after I speed up and
slow back down it will stall and be very hard to start, I was almost
stranded the last time I went out. Then if I adjust the timing again
I can get it running again. I am no expert on the ignition system but
I know that the timing is supposed to advance itself as the rpms go up
and then retard when they drop back down. Right now I have the points
style distributor in the boat and I think that whatever changes the
timing with the rpms is malfunctioning because when I adjust the
timing again it will start. So I have decided that in order to
eliminate this problem I am going to switch over to electronic
ignition. My question is do you think just using the conversion kit
which just converts the current distributor to an electronic one would
work? Has anyone used these kits? I am looking to do this as cheap
as possible. But since I am already having trouble with the ignition
I am unsure that the conversion kit will fix it and I will have to buy
the whole electronic distributor instead. I would like to buy just
the conversion kit unless you guys think that that won't help because
I am already having problems. So do you think that the conversion kit
will do or should I buy the whole electronic distributor? Thanks,
James.

What strikes me, here, is that you haven't diagnosed the problem.

What is causing the timing to change? Is the points wear block
wearing? Are the points burning out or welding? Is the advance
mechanism hanging? Are you getting ready to lose the timing chain or
gears?

If you want to do this with the last amount of cost, don't start
swapping parts..... properly diagnose the problem and fix only what is
wrong......
--

Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.

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I think that the mechanism which advances the timing is hanging up.
The last time I went out I marked where the distributor was when the
boat was in good running and starting condition. Then I went out for
a ride and played around with the timing until it felt like it was
running the best. I went fast for a while and the boat ran great.
Then when I slowed down it ran rough and then died. I could not get
it started again so I adjusted timing back to the mark that I had
previously made but the boat still would not start so I played around
with it until I got it running again and went straight in. So I think
that it is the mechanism that advances the timing causing the problems
because even when I put it back to the mark it would not start. That
leads me to believe that even though the distributor was in the same
place the timing was different because of something internal being
stuck. I was looking at the conversion kits and it says that the kits
use the old distributor cap, coil, and rotor. So I was wondering if
you know if the rotor is what controls advancing the timing? Because
if it does then I would have to replace that too because that would be
what is causing the problems. Thanks, James.