1996 Mercury 40 Hp died, please help.

I have never had any issues with my Merc until yesterday. I was fishing all morning and docked it to go for supper. After a few hours I came back and fired it up and started to untie the boat to go out for an evening fish and she stalled. It has never started agian. I thaught it may have just flooded out, but after a hour or so it still woundn't start. I put all new plugs in it and still nothing. It's rolling over but not firing. The motor is a '96, 40HP, 4 cyl, oil injected, S/N 06291209.<br />I assume it's one of three things; distributor, coil, or power pack. Can someone please help me and tell me how I can test to see what is the problem? If anyone thinks that it not any of the above, what else could it be? <br /><br />Any help is greatly appreciated.

Re: 1996 Mercury 40 Hp died, please help.

Hi jamie, welcome to iboats!!<br /><br />Assume nothing. Perform basic tests first.<br /><br />#1. You got fuel? Smell, look and feel(the primer bulb)<br /><br />#2. You got spark? Disconnect one of the spark plug wires and hold the end close to (but not touching) the engine block. Crank. Should have a nice clean blue 'snap'. Don't do this if fuel is present for obvious reasons.<br /><br />Take you 5 minutes to do these two test, Then repost with the results.<br /><br />Aldo

Re: 1996 Mercury 40 Hp died, please help.

I have fuel, but there is no spark.

Re: 1996 Mercury 40 Hp died, please help.

A long shot but is it possible that you have accidently hit the kill switch ?

Re: 1996 Mercury 40 Hp died, please help.

I wish that you were right, but i checked taht because we have all had that happend to us before. So it's not the kill switch.