1976 Mercury 115 - No spark

[Delakid]

Gents,

I'm normally on the yamaha board but we recently picked up this outboard that looks to be well cared for but can't get spark.

The Seloc manual is more confusing than anything.

Here is where we are at.

this is a straight 6 with a
single switchbox

We are showing no power to the distributor
showing no current /power to the coil


switchbox opposite side of the the distributor

1 Top green to distributor no power

2 yellow /tan has power

3 Red has power

4 Black no power



Dist side has 3 poles /posts

It appears that their is no current getting to the distributor. we did clean the cap to make sure and eliminate that possibility.

Your thoughts gents. Thanks in advance for the help....................


Kid

 

[Chris1956]

Re: 1976 Mercury 115 - No spark

Kid, That motor has a battery powered CDI Ignition. The red wire on the switchbox is always hot(+12VDC). The white wire next to it is power when ignition switch is on. The white wire must have +12VDC for the motor to have spark.

The green wire should run to the single ign coil. The coil gets pulses of power when it is time to fire a plug. The dissy wires have small voltages, and cannot be tested easily. There is an Ign test on the FAQ section of this forum. it will tell you if the switchbox and coil are OK, and if the trigger is bad.

 

[Delakid]

Re: 1976 Mercury 115 - No spark

Chris,

Thanks for your reply. Sounds like you know what you are doing with these engines.

However, I'm not sue I completely understand.

Battery powered CDI ignition. Am I correct in assuming that as long as the starting battery has juice that this should run properly ?

Is there supposed to be a second battery ?

What is the origin (what is connected to) of the white wire. Does this go to the key switch ?

I will look on the faq section for the testing procedure.


Thank you Chris,


Kid

 

[Delakid]

Re: 1976 Mercury 115 - No spark

Tested the coil this afternoon just to rule that out and it showed it was ok or conducted power.

Hoefully it's not the switchbox.


Kid

 

[Chris1956]

Re: 1976 Mercury 115 - No spark

You are correct, the motor needs a battery to provide power to the switchbox, in order to have spark. the starting battery provides the power and the motor recharged the starting battery when running. White wire comes from ign switch and provides power for ignition as well.

Run the battery powered CDI test to prove wiring, coil and switchbox are good.