88 mercruiser 4.3 litre NO SPARK!

Hi guys first post


i have a 1988 cadorette with a 4.3 ltr mercruiser.... It ran great as of saturday night but then when I went to start it up on the sunday ... nothing. I took one of the plugs out and put it against the block to see if i was getting a spark and I was not. I replaced the coul and distributor cap and rotor. still nothing. i did find a ground wire that was connected to my eltronic timing unit that was not connected to anything else. The electrionic control has a sperate ground wire which is connected succesfull.

SO in the end iquestion i have is...

what could the wire that is grounded out at the electronic timing control be from ? if it helps when i found it i was hanging right behind the distributor cap. (does the distributor cap get grounded out)?


if this one little ground wire is what is keeping me off the water these last days ill be pretty embaressed!

Thanks for your time

Don Shaw

Re: 88 mercruiser 4.3 litre NO SPARK!

man overboard switch, bad tach.

Re: 88 mercruiser 4.3 litre NO SPARK!

Did the safety lanyard get pulled out by accident? That will sure stop the spark?
As soon as I find it again, I will post the troubleshooting chart for the Thunderbolt IV ignition.

Re: 88 mercruiser 4.3 litre NO SPARK!