Mercruiser 3.0 140 pertronix overheating

ncp546

Cadet
Joined
Aug 19, 2012
Messages
28
Forgive me if I’m missing something, but I did search the forum prior and I still cannot figure out this overheating issue.

1986 Rinker v170 3.0 140.

Previous owner did the pertronix ignition swap. First time on the lake runs great for 30/40 minutes then just shuts down. Verified I’m getting fuel to the carb, will not start on fluid. After 5/10 min of sitting will start right back up. This boat has power to the choke, looks like he has a purple wire that feeds into the choke with a blue wire tapped into it feeding it to the + side of the coil. He also has a purple/yellow striped wire going down to the starter that is on the + side as well as the red igniter wire to the + side. The only thing on the - side of the coil is the black wire from the igniter. Coil is very hot to the touch when it shuts down. Thinking something is hooked up wrong? He has a red wire electrical taped to the harness with a red wire (assuming this is a direct 12v wire from the key back) but it is not hooked up. Unfortunately don’t have a multimeter handy until I am home from my up north time, boat is currently dead in the water. Any help would be appreciated as this boat runs incredible when it does. Thanks In advance.
 

Dubed

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 3, 2021
Messages
373
Forgive me if I’m missing something, but I did search the forum prior and I still cannot figure out this overheating issue.

1986 Rinker v170 3.0 140.

Previous owner did the pertronix ignition swap. First time on the lake runs great for 30/40 minutes then just shuts down. Verified I’m getting fuel to the carb, will not start on fluid. After 5/10 min of sitting will start right back up. This boat has power to the choke, looks like he has a purple wire that feeds into the choke with a blue wire tapped into it feeding it to the + side of the coil. He also has a purple/yellow striped wire going down to the starter that is on the + side as well as the red igniter wire to the + side. The only thing on the - side of the coil is the black wire from the igniter. Coil is very hot to the touch when it shuts down. Thinking something is hooked up wrong? He has a red wire electrical taped to the harness with a red wire (assuming this is a direct 12v wire from the key back) but it is not hooked up. Unfortunately don’t have a multimeter handy until I am home from my up north time, boat is currently dead in the water. Any help would be appreciated as this boat runs incredible when it does. Thanks In advance.
If I recall.... (and thats a big if LOL)
You need a 3ohm coil and the resistor wire needs to be deleted
Did mine a while ago and pretty sure if you use the 1.5ohm coil it will overheat like that. Hopefully someone else on here can lead you in the right direction
 

ncp546

Cadet
Joined
Aug 19, 2012
Messages
28
If I recall.... (and thats a big if LOL)
You need a 3ohm coil and the resistor wire needs to be deleted
Did mine a while ago and pretty sure if you use the 1.5ohm coil it will overheat like that. Hopefully someone else on here can lead you in the right direction
Thanks for the quick reply, not sure on the resistor but know for a fact I have the 3.0 flame thrower coil. Went down a tried the boat this morning, completely dead with no spark. I must have pushed my luck on this set up, drove 5 hours to get here and got a couple days out of it. My bad for not testing this sooner haha
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
Staff member
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
50,487
I never had luck with pertronix and ended up going back to points every time.

However that was 20 years ago.

Go to their website. they have schematics in the library
 

ncp546

Cadet
Joined
Aug 19, 2012
Messages
28
If anyone sees this forum in the future, just wanted to let everyone know I am going back to points and condenser. I don’t use the boat every weekend about 10 times a year roughly. So i just want to keep the boat stock. I’ll report back if that fixed my issue for good. Thanks all to helped
 
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