Newby Sea Ray/Mercruiser 170 restoration project

wipeoutdanman

Recruit
Joined
Mar 3, 2012
Messages
1
Hi ya'll from the central plains of Oklahoma!! A friend and I decided to take on a project because he's retired and we both love boats and fishing. We purchased a 19' Sea Ray Seville with a clean engine, outdrive, electrical. Stator has been removed but boat turns over fine, good compression, no fire to the plugs though. Power to the coil but no spark to the plugs. The wires to the stator are not connected to anything and we haven't put an alternator kit on it yet. We bought the thing for $500 so we figured the trailer, stainless prop, and the outdrive were worth that. Floor is rotten, transom is solid, bottom and hull are in great shape, Interior needs to be redone. Just wanted to know if there were any starting procedures to check for? Kill switches? We're thinking the coil is bad but just wanted some feedback from some folks who have been there and done that! Any help would be appreciated.
 

Don S

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Aug 31, 2004
Messages
62,321
Re: Newby Sea Ray/Mercruiser 170 restoration project

Replace the points and condenser. They wear out and get glazed over, corroded, etc. and don't make good contact. When that happens, no spark.
 

kmarine

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Nov 5, 2010
Messages
581
Re: Newby Sea Ray/Mercruiser 170 restoration project

please post engime make and model so that we have an idea wherre to begin thank you
 

Don S

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Aug 31, 2004
Messages
62,321
Re: Newby Sea Ray/Mercruiser 170 restoration project

please post engime make and model so that we have an idea wherre to begin thank you

His title says it's a Mercruiser 170, which is a 3.7L 4 cylinder (aka 470) engine used in 85 and 86.
 

Pete104

Lieutenant
Joined
Apr 30, 2011
Messages
1,439
Re: Newby Sea Ray/Mercruiser 170 restoration project

Sounds like somebody has been been robbing parts off this engine. The only thing you may not recognize is the shift interupter switch. It shorts the ignition straight to ground to relieve torque on the clutch dog when coming out of gear. You may have a shift cable pulling against it. The cable with the brass barrel is the cable that activates the switch. Remove that cable & see if the mechanism operates freely. If it does & still no spark, disconnect the white wire w/green tracer.
All of this is assuming that the distributor is clean.
You didn't mention if the rotor/balancer was still there. If it's not, you will have a bad time setting the timing.
 
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