Re: Mercruiser Starting Issues
I apologize for overlooking that question. You were correct, it is a vacuum plug. The boat will hardly start with this plug on, and it will idle very rough with the plug off. So, I start the boat, run to the engine, and replace the plug. I am not a very experienced mechanic, although most of the common posters on here probably already knew that. It does not get a spark. There is no kill switch, or, at least none that I can find. None at the helm, and none on the engine. Once the engine is warm, I have to have the throttle in neutral to start (no pumping whatsoever). It does not misfire or anything once started, I believe on another post, someone mentioned a distributor module, does that ring any bells? I checked all connections and wiring, as wiring is pretty much my bread and butter anyways, but I don't want to start pulling this and that off without prior knowledge. All wiring is good, I bypassed the gauges with that purple wire from the ignition, let it go straight to the engine, and then looped in the gauges. That seemed to help a lot, but still not solve the issue.
Once again, I thank everyone for their patience and helpful responses. I know I'm no expert, but imho I would have to narrow it down to the distributor or a component thereof. I guess it doesn't help much that with this issue, I will probably be replacing the starter before much longer.
