I have an older 1972 model merc that won't start at all for me. I don't exactly know what I've done to it. I fired it up two weeks ago, and noticed it was very hard to start. It did finally start and iddled fine. I then noticed that there were three dry-rotted wires on the engine and re-wired the troubled ones. I opened up my mercontol box to inspect the ignition wires to make sure they weren't dry rotted also. Well.............it was like a rat nest in there!!!! I cut back 24" on the wire harness and re-wired the seven wires in it with the same gauge and color. I then noticed my choke solenoid was faulty (since the whole plunger was completly out of the solenoid and broken). I guess the rat nest had somehow overheated the choke solenoid since there was some sort of melted glue below it. I replaced both the solenoid and plunger. The good news is that now I have my choke working, but I can't get my engine to fire again. And when I try my negative battery cable gets hot as fire when I try to start it. The positive cable gets hot also but not as hot. Does anybody have an idea on what I could have done? Or has something shorted out that I can't see? I don't see any other noticable burned wires. The gas is full. Could the new ignition switch (which doesn't fit my control box) be causing all this? Any help would be very appreciated.
