I have a 1966, Mercury 650, 65hp, 4 cylinder. When I first put the boat in the water it cranks great. It's idled a bit to low but when you give it the gas it runs great. After just a minute or so it's like it just quits running for a millisecond and then starts running fine again. Then it may lose power for a few seconds and then it restores itself and runs great. I can then turn the motor off and do a little fishin' (which is why I bought the boat) and when I go to crank the boat again it will not even try to fire. I can let it sit for 10 or fifteen minutes and then it will crank again (except last Saurday when I had to troll all the way back to the dock). Does anyone have any ideas what may be causing this? I love the boat and motor would just like to get it fixed. I ordered a manual for it, but I am figuring the troubleshooting section is not going to cover this.<br /> The Mercury switch on the side of the motor had gone bad. I removed it. The housing under the distributor cap had been busted before I bought it. I was wondering why it had been slathered with black poly butylene. I took it apart and cleaned it well. Super Glued it back together and then put fast drying marine sealant on the outside of all the cracks. Let it cure for a couple of hours. Also, the points were not opening wide enough. I would say about .00002 or something, if it was opening at all (I am surprised it was running). I reset that to .010, put everything back together and now it cranks and runs great. Even fixed the low idling problem by adjusting the throttle cable the way the manual described. And it goes into gear smoother. Took the boat out for a second outing since I reset the points. The first time I took it out it ran great. The second outing and it was running horrible. It's like it had no fire at all. It went from a top speed of 29 ground speed to 6.9 ground speed and acted like it was only running on 1 cyclinder with lots of missing even at low speeds. Would the coil do that? I am going to pop it back open and see if something happened to the points. How do you check a coil to see if it is working correctly?The new plugs did not help much. It is not missing now but it has no power at all. I can throw up the warm-up stick and it will rev really good but when I put a load on the prop it just does not have power. The points still look like they are gapped right. I am not sure how to check the coil or the condensor. The manual I bought explains some things well and others it doesn't even address. Frustrated! No squeaking. The motor cranks so easy that the starter will try to disengage too quickly because it fires immediately. Me and my wife took it out last Sunday morning after I had set the points and it just ran beautifully like a new motor. We had to go to Grannies house to pick up the girls so I asked a friend if he wanted to go back out with me. When I cranked it up it was missing and sputtering and finally lost all power and it had just eaten up the plugs as stated in my previous post. I can't figure out for the life of me what could have happened while it was just sitting on the trailer waiting to go back to the lake. Currently it cranks fine. Idles well. If you give it full throttle it goes but has no power at all. It can't get enough speed to plane out. About 9 mph. If I push up the warm up stick it will rev wide open. But if I put it in gear and give it the throttle it is pitiful. Any help would be of great appreciation.. My husband is Frustrated 
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