2001 5.0 intermittent no spark

Erock

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Jun 22, 2009
Messages
39
My boat has been stalling here and there this season mostly after it's warm. Last Sunday when we were on our way to our hangout spot, I lost all my rpms ( it didn't stall out though) while I was almost full throttle. I had to take it out of gear and put it back into gear and it ran fine the whole rest of the way there. On the way back, after about 10 mins of running it stalled out and would not start again. I always keep a tool set in my boat so I did my basic checks. Fuel pump was pushing fuel but there was no spark.(Thunderbolt ignition). After getting towed back and got the boat home it sat for 2 days before I got a chance to look at it more. Checked for 12v at coil. That was good. Check for 12v at white/red wire from ignition module. That was good too. Coil tested 1.1 ohm on primary, 10.5k on secondary. Hooked every thing back up and turned the key and it fired right up instantly like it always does. I'm suspecting a bad coil when hot, but is there any other thing I should be looking for? There's a big price difference between a coil and an ignition module. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to explain the situation the best I could. Thanks in advance for any responses.
 

Bondo

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 17, 2002
Messages
70,604
Ayuh,..... Donno what you've got goin' on, But,....

It's rarely to never the coil,......
 

alldodge

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
40,891
Agree, hadley ever the coil, and would help to know if this is a carb, EFI, MPI

I think you have a bad connection, loose wire, kill switch or even the key switch. The vibration when running may cause something to break connection
 

wahlejim

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
884
+1 on the previous suggestions. Start with switches and connections, clean everything, even the engine ground.
 

Erock

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Jun 22, 2009
Messages
39
Agree, hadley ever the coil, and would help to know if this is a carb, EFI, MPI

I think you have a bad connection, loose wire, kill switch or even the key switch. The vibration when running may cause something to break connection

It's a carb
 

alldodge

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
40,891
The worst part with your issue is the only way to find it is to wait until it does it again. The TBV is easy enough to test, but if its working then no way to find out what wasn't when the problem started.

If it stalled out quick like the key was turned off, then I would suspect and break in a connection.

If it stalled out real slow, then maybe heat related and something was breaking down
 

Erock

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Jun 22, 2009
Messages
39
The worst part with your issue is the only way to find it is to wait until it does it again. The TBV is easy enough to test, but if its working then no way to find out what wasn't when the problem started.

If it stalled out quick like the key was turned off, then I would suspect and break in a connection.

If it stalled out real slow, then maybe heat related and something was breaking down

It's only shut off 4 times this whole season and it's been a mixture of just shutting off and more of a drawn out stumble and stall. I just don't want to get get stuck again with the whole family in the boat. I'm leaning more towards heat related myself. Maybe I'll run it in my driveway for awhile and see what happens. It won't be getting the same work out it does in the water but we'll see. Thank you very much.
 
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