Electronic ignition for Mercruiser 170 (1985)?

[spareparts]

pull all the wires off the coil. hook the red wire from the pertronix to the + terminal on the coil, hook the black wire on the pertronix to the - terminal on the coil. Use a jumper wire and hook 12v to the + terminal on teh coil, spin the engine over and see if you get spark. If not, check the sensor gap and go back thru the pertronix trouble shooting guide. If you do get spark, pull your jumper wire and hook the purple/white wire up on the + terminal with the red pertronix wire, spin the motor over and see if you get spark, if you don't you've got voltage issues, cut the harness back till you get to a solid purple wire and bypass the resistor, some used the electric choke as a resistor, some used a small loop of hard wire as a resistor. If you did get spark, then hook up the grey wire on the - terminal with the black pertronix wire, spin the motor and check, if you didn't get spark, un plug the shift switch harness(white green wire) and retest

[scook]

Thanks guys - that sequence makes perfect sense. I'll dig into it as soon as I can sneak out of the office.

[scook]

By the way Ferm & Spare - thanks for the tip for getting the plug boots on the wires. I was at the Merc dealer, so picked up some Power Tune - they pretty much put themselves on with that lube. I still can't figure out why the dialectric grease didn't work hardly at all but it didn't.