1997 Force 120 Voltage Regulator Service Bulletin

Recently out fishing noticed smoke coming up from engine cover, took cover off discovered wires leading from voltage regulator were burnt and coils were very hot to the touch. Lucky had battery switch and turned to off position. Tried to restart engine and it would not start. Took boat to local repair shop and after two weeks finally got answers, a new voltage regulator was installed, started engine and had a backfire sputter thru exhaust. Service said it was a timing problem, ordered new stator and pickup no change engine still missing. Replaced coils and that fixed the problem. Also they said there was a service bulletin on these engines that required the voltage regulator to be grounded, if this had been done it would have prevented the voltage regulator from burning everything up. Has anyone heard of this service bulletin on this engine? I wonder how many other engines have been burned up because of this? Service manager said I should have a lot more years of service from this engine now.
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