3.7 L will no start

frankttaylor

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Apr 3, 2012
Messages
100
Ok so here is the latest problem I really need some help on. I will need to give some background so you know how I got where I am. I bougth a 1990 Bluewater that was stored in an open barn and hadn't been licensed (and as far as I know ran) since 2005. The fuel tank was open and I am preyty sure someone attempted to drain the fuel. I got the boat home and replaced:

Impeller kit (twice)
Oil
Oil Filter
Anti-freeze
Cap
Rotor
Points
Spark plugs (not wires)

I finished draining fuel tank (which was/is varnished) and ran varnish remover through tank. Then I replaced fuel filter and she fired up and ran almost perfect. The charging system charged, water temp perfect, idle perfect, shift in and out of gear great.

So I turned my attention to the trailer and decided to buy a different trailer to store boat on. When we swapped trailers I decided to take the boat for a spin around the block and it started great but died when I throttled down quickly. We had a hard time getting it started again and I had to throttle it high to get it to run. Well that went on for about 5 minutes and then its started and ran perfect. fast - slow no issues what so ever. When I came into dock it died when I throttled it down but it did start right back up. When we got the boat home on the "temporrary" trailer my buddy was working on the bilge pump and I wanted to take a look at what he was doing and I stepped on the rear ladder and the whole boat and trailer flipped up at a 30-40 degree angle until the outdrive hit the ground. After much aingst we lowered it carefully and decided not to try that again. Well we got the trailer fixed and swapped trailers this past weekend. When I got the boat home on Saturday I started it up and it ran kind of rough. I noticed the fuel filter looked plug (it's an inline filter-Autozone) and figured the boat just needed to be ran out. It died on me when I idled down and I did get a back fire. When we got it to the lake I left it on the trailer and started it. It died right away so I got it going revving the engine. It back fired again and then would not start. I ran to store to get a new filer and although the previous filter was plugged this did not resolve my no start issue. I got the boat home and took the distributor cap off and turned engine over and did not see any spark. We also did not see any when I removed plug wire and put next to block. My buddy went to look at the boat yesterday and said the outdrive won't lower all the way down ( I have not verified this myself). I suspect it might be lower shift cable causing the shift interuptor switch to keep the engine fom firing. Thoughts? Ideas? Where should I start?
 
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