73 Mercury 850 85hp no fire

[smcminn]

The motor ran great when I parked it for the winter, but now doesn't seem to be getting fire to the spark pugs. It's a four cylinder with a distributor and a single coil. So far I have replaced the spring and carbon, cleaned the distributor cap, charged the battery and installed new spark plugs. Still won't fire up.

I am getting fire from the coil to the distributor and it seams that someone removed the mercury switch prior to me.

So what do I check next?

Thanks in advance!

 

[GA_Boater]

Have you verified you are getting spark. Auto parts stores carry these spark gap testers to check spark strength. Plug the wire on the end and ground the other. Less than 10 bucks.

 

[smcminn]

Thanks for the reply GA_Boater. I don't have a gizmo that you described, but I did check for spark with a screwdriver while I had someone turn the key. No spark or shock. The coil got me though

 

[smcminn]

On closer inspection of the distributor, the white wire had at some point worn in two and someone twisted back together and taped. Now the bit of wire protruding from the trigger has rotted. Can this be re-wired? Or is a new trigger called for?

 

[Faztbullet]

Trigger replacement time.....