1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

[torrin]

Hey guys,

Last weekend was out on the lake, started the boat up off the trailer perfectly fine, went for a quick rip then turned around and grabbed my buddies from the dock. Went about 30ft at idling speeds out to the middle and the boat just died. Tried starting a few times and she fired and only stayed running for about 30 seconds, then wouldn't fire again after about two tries, waited about 10-15 minutes and tried again and she fired and started for maybe 5-6 seconds at most and died again. To this day i haven't had it running since. Charged the battery, Have checked and made sure the fuel pump is working, have looked down the carb throat and made sure that it's getting fuel. And now have gotten to the main problem, there is no spark whatsoever. I have a spark plug tester and tested the main plug wire from the coil to the distributor and nothing, no spark there, so I now know it probably has nothing to do with the distributor to spark plug circuit. So i first checked to see if there was 12V from the (+) side of the coil and she is fine and also the (-) side is getting 12V with the ignition in "run". So I then checked all the connections again and everything looks and appears to be not corroded or anything. I also have checked to see if the ignition module (ICM) is getting power and it is getting 12V. After this I don't really know what to do, any other suggestions would be much appreciated, would the ignition coil be toast or the ignition module? and if so, how could i double check to make sure they are not functioning before replacing them.


Thanks again

 

[torrin]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Engine Serial Number: 0L006680
Have replaced the ignition sensor in the distributor also and nothing changed!

and also is there a killswitch on this boat? and if so how could I bypass it to see if the engine will fire and run?

And also, is there a service manual I can get for this engine, and whereabouts could i get this from? Having one of those will be a life saver!

 

[torrin]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Reading through multiple forums and threads and have tried this now

I took the (-) off the coil and grounded it to the block securely, then tried starting and got a faint light to appear on my spark plug tester. But no fire on the engine. Re-connected the gray wire to the (-) side of the coil and tried starting and had the same faint light appearing. What could cause the super faint light on my tester but no fire? the battery is fully charged also, replace the ignition coil?

 

[Don S]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

See if this will help.

 

[torrin]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Thanks Don,

I replaced the ignition coil today and pumped the gas a few times and she fired like a beauty!


BUT, there's always a but,

once out on the lake for about an hour of wake-boarding tonight, while planing and going about 25 mph, the boat just died! No big noises or anything, just the engine shut off. Haven't been able to restart the boat since the battery slowly died over a half hour of cranking the engine. While cranking, the motor sounded like it wanted to fire and tried a couple times within about 6 seconds of cranking but never ended up firing. What could have caused the motor to just quit unexpectedly in the middle of the lake? I'll check tomorrow if the carb is getting gas and if charging the battery up here tonight could do anything and will also re-trace the ignition system. But this problem seems completely different then what happened last weekend (see above). Any ideas what could have happened?

 

[torrin]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Update,


have traced the whole ignition system, and this is what i Have found out so far. (+) at ignition coil and 12.3V with a freshly charged battery, no start, +12V at the white/red wire from ignition module, no start, jumped most of the ignition system with a hardwire from (+) batt terminal to (+) ignition coil, no start, tried looking for spark when tapping green/white wire against the ground, nothing, still no start, replaced ignition coil, 100$ started right up, no hesitation, after an hour of wake-boarding, boat just died in the water, and never started again, while trying to start while stranded, she choked a few times for a spark but never started, batterry died, boat back on trailer, replaced ignition module 600$, still no start, Now we're at the point where we are going to get an ignition swap out from a 1998 350, 700$, this is the last straw that I have in my pocket at the moment, does ANYONE have any suggestion after reading this? The main thing that confuses me is why she just started up with a brand new coil and died an hour later, within that hour probably started her about 10-15 times and no hesitation upon start up at all until she just died.

Thanks Again

 

[djmakko]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

did you checked the spark plugs? are they wet? check also the alternator for corroded contacts. mine had two wires totally stripped and couldn't never get it started drain my battery, went to the same trouble as you with the ignition, but then I had a hole in the block now replacing engine.

 

[torrin]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

no, because we never got passed the coil wire since there was no spark there, so it shouldn't really matter about the plugs just yet till I get that far, do you know what i mean, if we get a strong spark at the distributor cap then I would check that out but we have minimal spark/no spark coming out of the coil to dist. cap. Umm i will definitely check the starter and maybe just replace all the loop terminals on the wires and sand down the terminals on the starter. thats a quick and maybe a cheap fix. Thanks for that

 

[torrin]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Update,

checked all connections EVERYWHERE, and zero signs of corrosion or anything, crossed the 50A circuit breaker and still no start, unplugged the (-) side of the coil, no spark, cranks hard but still no spark going into the distributor cap.

Is there any other tricks to bypass any parts of the ignition circuit that might give a temporary fire, i can't think of anything else that could be a problem at all!

 

[Don S]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Before you do any more parts swapping, go to this chart and tell me which step is the one that fails.

 

[torrin]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Don,


Step 5 i cant get a psark but that is with a bad coil, i just replaced the clil this morning to do some test on the lake, gonna check to see if the coil is burning up while driving, but im also wanting to check to see if the ignition module might have been the problem and thats also what the lake tests are for, hopefully she runs for more than an hour :s

 

[Saqbcq]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Make sure you replace your ignition coil with OEM or OEM equal. Some coils are not compatible with Mercury ignition systems I had the same problem. Good luck

 

[torrin]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

saqbcq,

thanks for the input but I have replaced it with an OEM coil from my local mercruiser dealer. Still happened, I have a new coil and module in the boat since the boat died in the middle of wakeboarding (last time out) and will check to see if this has fixed the problem, will post back thursday hopefully

 

[torrin]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Case closed, the old ignition module was the culprit for chewing threw the coils. It has been running like a beauty for the past week now. Thanks for all the patience and information everybody, really appreciate it!

 

[swjustus]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Case closed, the old ignition module was the culprit for chewing threw the coils. It has been running like a beauty for the past week now. Thanks for all the patience and information everybody, really appreciate it!

HELP!-I have a 1988 350 mercruiser v/drive that I had to trace down a electrical problem. Originally the port side motor was bogging under load but sounded ok in netrual. After changing plugs,I found it would not start and had no spark,changed coils,cap and rotor, and no spark. I put a used distributor from another mercruiser and no spark. I did the book "manual test" and found the pick up coil to be bad-so, I assume I had two bad pick up sensors. I put in a new sensor and got spark-so, everthing is great-No! Now, I cannot get the timing right. I have put in many distributors and that isn't the problem. The firing order is right, no crossed wires,rotor pointing to #1 on compression at TDC. I swapped the control moduel from the second motor and the second motor runs fine but the culprit is still backfiring through the carb-trying to start. I cked the timing chain and it appears tight. The motor has 600 total running time and this all started while changing plugs-oh,the plugs were not corroded but they were foulded from bogging and loading up with uncombusted fuel . I cannot imagine the plug wires going bad all at once so I am temporarily eliminating them-does anyone have a idea. Stuck valve maybe-but not likely. I am thinking swapping distributors from the second motor but at this point am paranoid to open up another can of worms with the second motor. HELP!

 

[Don S]

Re: 1998 Tige 5.7L Chevy 350 Mercruiser - no spark

Welcome to iboats, You need to start a new thread of your own. http://forums.iboats.com/announcement.php?f=444