We have a 1991 Rinker Fiesta Vee with a 454 and a Bravo 1 drive with 400 hours. The boat is slipped and I needed to run the boat to the mechanic to take a look at the trim limit switch, mainly because I don't feel like diving with tools to try to mess around with it.
When we got to the marina, the boat would turn over but would not start. We checked fuel. we had fuel. Checked spark, no spark from the coil. We left it at that and went to parts store to get new plugs, wires, distributor cap/rotor. coil, and ignition sensor. They are all original parts so we figured we might as well do a tune up. Also brought a multi-meter and the Mercruiser Thunderbolt testing chart to go through it and figure out what went wrong.
When I came back in the evening, I tried to start it before changing anything out and it started right up. A little hard to start since I flooded it in the morning but it started. Idle smoothed out after a little while and I went ahead and changed the plugs. They were still a bit wet but otherwise looked fine. I left all the other parts in tact as I didn't want to swap it all out and find out the ignition module is bad.
Came back this morning in hopes that it would be dead again to be able to through the testing chart and luckily it would not start again. There is no power at the coil with the key switch on. The breaker on the engine has power on both sides. The solenoid next to the breaker also engages when trying to start the engine. Gauges get power. There is no kill switch on the boat.
So where do I even begin testing? I plan on checking and cleaning the wiring/connections behind the ignition switch, at the neutral safety switch on the shifter, and at the connector on the engine.
The purple wire on motor side that goes to the coil, is red on the harness that goes to the switch, correct?
Anything else to test from past experiences? I want to get this sorted out before I swap out everything else just in case the ignition module is also bad since the Thunderbolt IV modules are getting harder and harder to find. If the module tests bad, I would probably just convert to the AC Delco EST ignition. We don't know how long this problem has been going as were not usually on the boat this early in the morning.
Thanks in advance!
When we got to the marina, the boat would turn over but would not start. We checked fuel. we had fuel. Checked spark, no spark from the coil. We left it at that and went to parts store to get new plugs, wires, distributor cap/rotor. coil, and ignition sensor. They are all original parts so we figured we might as well do a tune up. Also brought a multi-meter and the Mercruiser Thunderbolt testing chart to go through it and figure out what went wrong.
When I came back in the evening, I tried to start it before changing anything out and it started right up. A little hard to start since I flooded it in the morning but it started. Idle smoothed out after a little while and I went ahead and changed the plugs. They were still a bit wet but otherwise looked fine. I left all the other parts in tact as I didn't want to swap it all out and find out the ignition module is bad.
Came back this morning in hopes that it would be dead again to be able to through the testing chart and luckily it would not start again. There is no power at the coil with the key switch on. The breaker on the engine has power on both sides. The solenoid next to the breaker also engages when trying to start the engine. Gauges get power. There is no kill switch on the boat.
So where do I even begin testing? I plan on checking and cleaning the wiring/connections behind the ignition switch, at the neutral safety switch on the shifter, and at the connector on the engine.
The purple wire on motor side that goes to the coil, is red on the harness that goes to the switch, correct?
Anything else to test from past experiences? I want to get this sorted out before I swap out everything else just in case the ignition module is also bad since the Thunderbolt IV modules are getting harder and harder to find. If the module tests bad, I would probably just convert to the AC Delco EST ignition. We don't know how long this problem has been going as were not usually on the boat this early in the morning.
Thanks in advance!
