1970 Mercury 500e not starting

[Pazarneg1]

Hi guys, first post here , so really appreciate your help. A bit of background - last year I have purchased a 1971 Fletcher Arrow with a 1970 Mercury 500e redband that was completely dead. There was nbo spark at all due to corroded distributor, rotten HT leads , plus the engine has not been touched for years. I have spent the winter taking it apart and cleaned all of the ignition system components as well as making my own HT leads with a copper core, since the original ones are rather hard to come across inth eUK. I have also replaced all the lube, impeller and gaskets in the lower unit + fuel lines. Once I have put it togehter in December I got spark on every plug. Since then it has sat for the winter on the water for about 4-5 months(winterising oil sprayed in the cylinders). I have connected up the electrics and the fuel yesterday and tried to start it up.
Results:

--Engine turning slowly with plugs and freely with them out(I guess at least i got decent compression)
-- Starter heating up significantly after cranking 5-10 times for intervals of 4-5 seconds.
--I assume there is spark, but got nothing out of it except an occasional "cough"

I also need to mention i did not adjust spark timing since Ive taken it apart, so perhaps that could be the reason for not starting up. Thank you in advance and I would really appreciate your help and advice on this.

Alex

 

[Tomtina3]

Re: 1970 Mercury 500e not starting

If engine is turning slowly, your battery is probably low..... if battery is good, might be the starter is going. Is it cranking fast enough to get a good start? Those starters do create a fair amount of heat, but its worse if battery is low or starter is going dead.

Check the spark again (easiest to do with a $5.95 spark tester). usually, if it coughs that means there is spark but you should check. Otherwise, you are correct to move on to things like timing, and all the other issues you will see by searching these forums.

 

[Pazarneg1]

Re: 1970 Mercury 500e not starting

Thanks for the advice! Well the battery seems fine 12.7V so all good. In terms of cranking - nowhere near quick enough, but im thinking of spraying some winterisation oil into the cylinders to lube it up. It spins fast for 1-2sec and then slows down when the compression gets high(i guess that's how it works). I have checked - there is definitely spark on plug 1 , however as I have mentioned the belt seems to be off. The original markings are off, so its gonna be a fair bit of guesswork to do to align it properly