1996 merc. 135 hp. no spark then beep beep beep

[tidechaser1]

i just finished replacing my steering cables and went to start the boat and it did not sound like it fired at all so i tested a couple of plugs which were very wet with oil so i cleaned them and tried to ground them against the block and check for spark..nothing.
after trying to turn it over for maybe 10 seconds i heard a beep beep beep…which did not stop until i turned off the key. i did some research and someone had posted to check the kill switch as his did this same alarm tone which turned out to be just the safetylanyard was unplugged. mine does not have a safety lanyard on the control so i am not sure if there is something simple i am missing. the boat ran fine before removing the steering cables so i am guessing some wiring issue.
has anybody ran into anything similar?
and no..the oil pump works fine and the tank has oil..it will not start at all so it is not an oil sender etc.
thanks.

 

[Chris1956]

The black/yellow wires are the ign killer wires. Unplug them at both switchboxes and see if spark returns. If it does, check that wire for shorting to ground somewhere or a bad ign keyswitch.

 

[tidechaser1]

Not sure what switchboard are.i was planning on testing those wires today for a short today so I will see what I can find.I though insane that color wires somewhere..I will look. Thanks for the help.

 

[Chris1956]

The Switchboxes absorb power from the stator. When the trigger fires, they dump high voltage into each coil to produce the spark. They are mounted on the starboard side of the block, about 1/2 way up. The two switchboxes are stacked.

 

[tidechaser1]

just noticed my word was changed to switchboard from switch box..oops.
thanks for the help. i did more testing under the dashboard where i was working to swap out the steering cables and noticed there is a safety switch(a momentary switch) that seemed like it was corroded and not moving so i removed the black wire with the red stripe and that enabled spark so i guess the with was grounding out. going to order a with with the lanyard on it since i have to replace it anyway.
i take this out in the ocean so it is an even better idea.
thanks a lot for the help!
tide chaser clear.