Any of you had good luck with Marllory Marine dizzy's in the 4.3Ls?

[Capsta.]

I've got a weird timing issue where the timing retards about 10 degrees on my 97 alpha 1 gen 2.
This occurs from idle to about 2K RPM. Then the timing advances again (but never really makes it up past 20 degrees or so).

I don't think this model has the knock sensor, just the basic ignition module from what I can tell. That would have been my first guess as to what the issue was.

This leads me to think that I may be getting some flex or other mechanical failure in the dizzy. So I want a new dizzy.

I've been looking at various options (Merc, Sierra, etc.) and I was wondering if anyone has tried the Mallory YLM700AV dizzy and if they had good success with it.

I can see that the leads coming off of it are different than what was there before (connector is different and there is one more wire that I'm guessing is just a ground).

Has anyone here installed this and had success? What wiring changes did they need to make to get it working properly?

Thank you in advance,
~Capsta.

 

[mnypitboat]

Re: Any of you had good luck with Marllory Marine dizzy's in the 4.3Ls?

I picked a distributor, coil and electronic box up for $100, so it was worth the experiment. It was a spare for a racing team that never got used. Mine was in a 5.7l Mercruiser. 150 hours and not one issue, other than a bad ground. Not the units issue though. It performed well and was reliable.

I heard many bad experiances on here, so I was nervous about the install, but once it was in, I was very happy with the results.

 

[achris]

Re: Any of you had good luck with Marllory Marine dizzy's in the 4.3Ls?

That sounds like a similar issue I had when I had a new 4.3LX... Took me ages to find it but eventually I fixed it and it was never a problem again... It was just that the dissy body wasn't grounded properly... You should find a spare ground wire in the harness near the dissy, Swing that up and put it on under one of the module mounting screws... Should be problem solved...

Chris.......

 

[Capsta.]

Re: Any of you had good luck with Marllory Marine dizzy's in the 4.3Ls?

It's interesting you say that because I was poking around last night with a troublelight (sometimes its easier to see things at night in those engine bays) and I found a black wire coming out of the harness on the left side that wasn't connected to anything.

It had a flat connector on it like it was expecting a specific 'spade' style connector to plug into, but nothing was nearby for it to connect to.

There was ALSO a missing dizzy screw.

I'm thinking that maybe there was a connection between this missing screw and this ground (probably) wire.

I'm going to go out and verify that this black wire is a ground wire (regardless of key position) and if so, use it to ground the dizzy right now.

Thanks guys!

~Capsta.

 

[Capsta.]

Re: Any of you had good luck with Marllory Marine dizzy's in the 4.3Ls?

Update.

That solved the 'bouncing tach' problem and it also solved the spark retardation issues.

But now I've got 'wandering' spark. I performed the troubleshooting steps in the manual and it looks like this old corroded sensor in the dizzy is bad as well.

I'm going to toss in the Mallory and report back on this thread how it went.

~Capsta.

 

[achris]

Re: Any of you had good luck with Marllory Marine dizzy's in the 4.3Ls?

New sensors aren't expensive.... Have a look at this one -> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ignition-Se..._Accessories_Gear&hash=item4163a56c96&vxp=mtr

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Any of you had good luck with Marllory Marine dizzy's in the 4.3Ls?

Spend the 65 and get OE. Says grumpy old me.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Re: Any of you had good luck with Marllory Marine dizzy's in the 4.3Ls?

buy aftermarket sensor, the OE sensors that I looked at (manufactured by Cherry) are not properly conformal coated, I went Mallory.

as for the Mallory distributor, Mallory is a division of Prestolite. These were/are OEM for many marine companies.

 

[Capsta.]

Re: Any of you had good luck with Marllory Marine dizzy's in the 4.3Ls?

Reporting back:
The Mallory Marine YLM700AV worked fine..but don't be fooled by the misconception that the required resistance for the coil is 'built in' to the coil. I suspect that the Thunderbolt IVish ignition module supplied the proper resistance.
The YLM series has it's own ignition module and the Thunderbolt's ignition module is no longer required.

Burned up the coil on our vacation. Luckily was able to get towed 8 miles to the dock and get to an auto parts store for a new coil and .8 Ohm ballast resistor.

What you DO lose on this conversion is the engine cut-off switch that stumbles the engine when you go into or out of gear.
Luckily my drive is used and a bit used, so it still goes into and out of gear.
The Thunderbolt ignition takes care of this, but the Mallory YLM system appears to work the coil by 'pulsing' it to ground. This means grounding out the coil momentarily will NOT cause the engine stumble that one is looking for.

I'll come up with something for that later and post back. The trick will be to not put the electronics in the distributor at risk and also not put the system in a state that would be hard to revert (hack) if the cut-out switch failed.

If anyone has already come up with a good solution for this problem, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks,
~Capsta.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Re: Any of you had good luck with Marllory Marine dizzy's in the 4.3Ls?

grounding the coil and maintaining the ground will prevent the coil from firing. that is how the shift interupt switches work.