No spark, No Fun

[Road King Cole]

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.

[THEFERMANATOR]

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.

[spareparts]

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

[Road King Cole]

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....

[spareparts]

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

[Road King Cole]

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.

[THEFERMANATOR]

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.