My adult son just purchased an early to mid 1980's Glasstream 17' with a Mercruiser 140 (serial #: A540493) which puts iit in the 1982-1986 manufacture date range. He purchased it from a friend who stated that it ran about 2 years ago and has sat since. We changed the oil and oil filter, purchased a new battery, drained and cleaned the fuel tank and replaced the water separator / fuel filter.
I turns over fine (and cranks strong). However, there appears to be no spark - pulled the coil lead off the distributor and held it 3/16" - 1/4" from a good ground and got nothing. Just in case we tried a grounded spark plug - again nothing. The coil measured 1.5 ohms on the primary and 8.3K ohms on the secondary. However, we replaced it anyway because the old one looked a little nasty. New coil is 1.6 ohms on the primary and approximately 9K ohms on the secondary. The replacement coil was the NAPA cross reference for 32193A2. We have also replaced the condenser / capacitor (part #: 8M6001218) inside the distributor. Points are clean, set at roughly 0.018", and we have verified that they open and close - both visually and with a continuity meter (Fluke brand and I've used meters for a long time).
There are two wires on the positive side of the coil - one purple and yellow that goes to the starter solenoid and one purple that appears to go to the electric choke (but I haven't fully traced this one out, but it looks like the same wire). With the ignition on, there is 12V to the + side of the coil. HOWEVER, the purple and yellow wire doesn't appear to ever be energized. And, we have pulled the grey wire off the negative terminal (to eliminate the tach as a possible cause of no spark).
Testing the purple and yellow wire there appears to be continuity through the wire (again using the Fluke meter). HOWEVER, I was under the impression that the coil requires an external resistor (because its printed on the side of the coil) and I barely detected ANY resistance (e.g. 1/2 ohm) through the purple/yellow wire - and the wire was completely isolated - i.e. unattached at both ends.
Couple questions:
(1) should the purple / yellow wire from the starter solenoid to the + side of the coil be energized when the motor is cranking? It seems like it should, but there is virtually no voltage coming off the stud on the solenoid during cranking.
(2) we "hot wired" the coil - unhooked both wires on the + side and ran a hot +12V directly from the + terminal on the battery. Using starting fluid, we didn't even hear a "pop" so it appears that there still wasn't any spark. If I've only got a hot 12V on the + side of the coil and only the points [black] wire on the negative terminal, should I at least hear a pop after spraying a little starting fluid?
(3) the purple wire that appears to run to the electric choke had a positive 12V on it even when it was completely isolated from the purple / yellow wire. My hypothesis is that the purple wire puts 12V to the + side of the coil while the engine is running, but that the positive 12V comes from the solenoid during cranking - is this how it actually works? I don't have a manual so I'm guessing.
(4) Shouldn't I see a great deal of resistance on the purple / yellow wire - I though that the resistance that the coil states it needs come from this wire.
(5) Is it possible that the boat was equipped with the wrong coil because someone stripped out the resistor? I'm really guessing here. I've read that there is another coil with 3.0 ohms of resistance on the main winding and am wondering if someone installed the wrong coil at some time in the past. However, I would thing that it would at least fire even if the coil was the wrong one.
I turns over fine (and cranks strong). However, there appears to be no spark - pulled the coil lead off the distributor and held it 3/16" - 1/4" from a good ground and got nothing. Just in case we tried a grounded spark plug - again nothing. The coil measured 1.5 ohms on the primary and 8.3K ohms on the secondary. However, we replaced it anyway because the old one looked a little nasty. New coil is 1.6 ohms on the primary and approximately 9K ohms on the secondary. The replacement coil was the NAPA cross reference for 32193A2. We have also replaced the condenser / capacitor (part #: 8M6001218) inside the distributor. Points are clean, set at roughly 0.018", and we have verified that they open and close - both visually and with a continuity meter (Fluke brand and I've used meters for a long time).
There are two wires on the positive side of the coil - one purple and yellow that goes to the starter solenoid and one purple that appears to go to the electric choke (but I haven't fully traced this one out, but it looks like the same wire). With the ignition on, there is 12V to the + side of the coil. HOWEVER, the purple and yellow wire doesn't appear to ever be energized. And, we have pulled the grey wire off the negative terminal (to eliminate the tach as a possible cause of no spark).
Testing the purple and yellow wire there appears to be continuity through the wire (again using the Fluke meter). HOWEVER, I was under the impression that the coil requires an external resistor (because its printed on the side of the coil) and I barely detected ANY resistance (e.g. 1/2 ohm) through the purple/yellow wire - and the wire was completely isolated - i.e. unattached at both ends.
Couple questions:
(1) should the purple / yellow wire from the starter solenoid to the + side of the coil be energized when the motor is cranking? It seems like it should, but there is virtually no voltage coming off the stud on the solenoid during cranking.
(2) we "hot wired" the coil - unhooked both wires on the + side and ran a hot +12V directly from the + terminal on the battery. Using starting fluid, we didn't even hear a "pop" so it appears that there still wasn't any spark. If I've only got a hot 12V on the + side of the coil and only the points [black] wire on the negative terminal, should I at least hear a pop after spraying a little starting fluid?
(3) the purple wire that appears to run to the electric choke had a positive 12V on it even when it was completely isolated from the purple / yellow wire. My hypothesis is that the purple wire puts 12V to the + side of the coil while the engine is running, but that the positive 12V comes from the solenoid during cranking - is this how it actually works? I don't have a manual so I'm guessing.
(4) Shouldn't I see a great deal of resistance on the purple / yellow wire - I though that the resistance that the coil states it needs come from this wire.
(5) Is it possible that the boat was equipped with the wrong coil because someone stripped out the resistor? I'm really guessing here. I've read that there is another coil with 3.0 ohms of resistance on the main winding and am wondering if someone installed the wrong coil at some time in the past. However, I would thing that it would at least fire even if the coil was the wrong one.
