Mercruiser 260 Ignition coil grounding

We just repowered our 1979 Sea Ray 2360 weekender, and cannot get the engine to start. We have isolated the problem to the shift cutoff switch and find that when we jump the contacts while turning the engine over, it will fire momentarily. This action was also achieved when "flicking" the switch. We could do it continually while cranking but it would only fire at the "flick". Continually jumping the contacts or continuing to hold the switch in position does nothing, it only fires at the "flick" This has me baffled and it almost seemed like the switch was operating in reverse of its intention which told me there might be reversed wires. Not so, we have tried every configuration of wires we could and nothing sustains the firing. What doesn't help is none of the manuals we have bought and downloaded have wiring that agrees with that in our harness. Any ideas?

Re: Mercruiser 260 Ignition coil grounding

You need mercruiser service manual #3. I have it, but can't figure out how to convert it from PDF to a file that you can upload into this forum. Ask Don S. or Bond-O for it, or scroll down in the 260 forum, a few posts before yours is a post about it that Bond-O provided a link to. It's a long *****, 1026 pages, but it has the old 260 info you need, and you won't find it in the Seloc or Clymer manuals.

Re: Mercruiser 260 Ignition coil grounding

I'm moving this over to the Mercruiser IO forum, better suited for your problem.

First question would be, since you repowered, what ignition system do you now have?

Re: Mercruiser 260 Ignition coil grounding

Points not closing would fit the symptoms.