Help with my bros boat...Need help from old school ignition gurus...

[bigburban383]

My brother and his friend have this massive Bayliner Trophy they are restoring. I was trying to help them get the engine running. Its not getting spark. Its got points and a two wire coil. We tried every combination of the two mystery coil wires (one white, one purple) with jumping power to the coil. No spark detected. My brother says the points looked clean(hes not mechanic though). I don't know a whole lot about old ignitions, you know points and stuff. How do you test for the points signal? Can you do it with a test light on positive and touch the wire to see if the ground is breaking, per the flashing light?

 

[wraenking]

i wish i knew more about bopats.


go to www.iboats.com

best bopating forum around, they will answer your question


tom

 

[diesel4me]

I think you can use a test light from the points side of the coil(negative on most autos,but your boat may be positive ground --I dont fix many boats,but the same diagnosis should work.Hook the test light from the point side of the coil to ground--and crank the motor,if it flashes then there is power getting to the coil,and the points are making and breaking contact like they should...you could still have a bad condenser even though the test shows everthing working.You can do a crude test on the coil by removing the primary(small 12v wires)and running a hot wire to the + side of the coil,put an old sparkplug in the high tension wire,and ground the other wire (- or points side of coil)momentarily--each time you touch and release that wire a spark should jump the sparkpug gap(the sparkplug outer shell needs to be grounded too).I hope this helps --Happy boating! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Thunder]

If your points, coil, condenser, is ok check the following...
I am taking a wild guess since you dont say what engine or drive you have. But if it is a Mercruiser IO check the ignition lockout switch on the gear shift linkage. When you shift into gear there is a switch that momentairly kills power to the ignition as you move the shifter. This drops rpm so you dont slam into gear. If this switch is bad or out of adjustment the ignition circut will be open/grounded and will get no spark. If I rember right old OMC also has a similar thing too.
Just look at the shift linkage for a switch located somewhere on it. That may be your problem.
Some older outboards also had a similar lockout on them to prevent starting in gear.

 

[ryoken]

i'll assume it has chevys in it since 90% of gas boats are chevy... i'll assume its an older Bildgeliner too, meaning they probably aren't Merc packages, probably not Crusader either. probably Marine Power or OMC stuff. anyway, points are generally 18 to 21, check with dwell when ya get it running, think the dwell is between 28 and 32.

as someone mentioned, check that shift interuptor switch, often the culprit.. you can also jumper to the coil directly to bypass all that for testing (can't tell ya how many boats i hotwire on a yearly basis /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif )

what motor package would definitely help, even if the motors are black, gray, blue or red. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[bigburban383]

Its actually a Volvo 4 cylinder /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif