Mercury 90 ELPTO runs on 1 cylinder

[dandreye]

Hello All,

Got a 2001 3-cyl Mercury 90 ELPTO serial #0P121707 (Belgium) from a boat that drowned in fresh water (the kill switch was NOT activated) and was recovered in a few hours. ALL adequate procedures were applied at once to rid the engine of the water. Nevertheless it now runs in a weird fasion: cylinder #1 runs all the time and at times one of the other 2 cylinders (but never both) kicks in - but after a click the flywheel strikes back and tries spinning in the opposite direction for a few seconds. This is all I know from the mechanic's words. He claims there was no hydraulic impact. Oh, one of the 8 flywheel magnets (or magnet holders) broke down, they tried glueing it but it didn't help. Which ignition (and possibly other) parts do I buy to be 100% sure the problem goes away? The entire ignition kit including the flywheel is around $800 brand-new - it's quite a bit but if it fixes the problem it's fine.

Thanks a lot in advance,

Dmitriy

 

[dandreye]

Re: Mercury 90 ELPTO runs on 1 cylinder

Hi All,

Just replying on my own old question that I came across when going through my old messages - just in case anyone ever sees similar sympthoms.

The root cause there was Cyl #2 and #3 CDI modules had their cables swapped around: the mechanics didn't know that from 1996 onwards the ignition sequence changed from 1-3-2 to 1-2-3 (involving a newer crank of course - part #493-827616T1). This cost me a whole season spent out of water back then. Fortunately the effects described above seem to have been unable to damage the engine in any way as it's been running well again since it was subsequently repaired by a knowledgeable mechanic. Good to realise these engines are so robust they can withstand bad mechanics' work )

Best Regards,

Dmitriy