no spark

[michael feldman]

I have just taken my jet boat out of storage and i tried to start it and it would not fire up. It is powered by a 460 ford marine engine to a berkley jet. I discovered that the fuel pump was not working so I replaced that. It still will not start. The engine turns over fine, but no spark is getting to the plugs. I also replaced the coil. The plug wires are all new and the plugs were replaced last year. The only thing that I have not done so far is replace the distributor. If I replace the cap and the rotor will that help? My plan this summer is to sell the boat but I cant sell it if I can not get the boat to start. Is there anyone out there that could make some suggestions?

[woodboat]

First off put a meter on the coil power and check for voltage. Coil power wires often have resistance built in or use a ballast resistor. My last boat was wired kinda crazy. The coil power wire also powered all the engine instruments. The wire behind the dash daisy chained from instrument to instrument finally reaching the coil. A lead on a gauge, oil pressure I think, was loose causing a spark issue. It also had a bad ballast resistor further complicating the diagnosis.

[michael feldman]

thank you for your suggestion. I had not thught about that possibility.

[Corpus Skipper]

Is it electronic ignition or points? If electronic, it's probably a bad ignition module, if points, you probably need those and a new condenser. Like Woodboat said, check for voltage at the coil first, should have 9 volts if you have a ballast resistor or resistor wire. The ballast is a ceramic doodad about 2 inches long with a prong on either end and a coil in between. Electronic ignition may be 9 or 12 volts.

[michael feldman]

thank you for your response i am going to be busy this weekend maybe I can get this thing to fire up.