mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

[thunderbolt1977]

I have a mercury 1977 115hp 6cyclyn motor. I had all the electrical redone this year. Was a turn key motor after the work was done. I was out on the lake on a rough day and the motor stalled out and took on some water. I have tired replacing the spark plugs drying out the distributor. Still wont fire. My next steps is going to be is flush out the fuel system and use a air compresser tank to blow out the carbs. After doing this i am going to crank the motor over with out the spark plugs in. Does anyone have any other ideas how to fix the problem. Like i said it was running great until it was flooded with water. Was never under the water just waves got inside the cap. HELP Please.

 

[Faztbullet]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

Have you checked to see if you have spark at the plugs as it sounds like trigger died, belt broke or mercury switch shorted....

 

[thunderbolt1977]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

it seems that i do not have spark anymore where should i start the belt is just fine and i changed the switch box tonight and still no bang should i replace the distributor again? It is a new distributor and a new wiring harness? I dont know where to go from here and what is the trigger?

 

[Gomer50]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

The trigger is inside your distributor,all one piece.

 

[thunderbolt1977]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

The trigger is inside your distributor,all one piece.

how can you test the switch box, trigger and spark plugs what is the best way to do this. Also the boat is in a slip right now as i cannot get it out of the water because the motor does not run.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

Make sure you have battery voltage to the switchbox. The red wire on the switchbox should always have +12VDC. The white wire next to it should have +12VDC when the ign switch is on. No voltage no spark.

Those older motors usually have bad wiring on the motor and sometimes the boat harness. You will need to isolate where the wire broke. Start at the quick disconnect plug.
How did waves get into cowling?

 

[thunderbolt1977]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

The waves got in because there was 5 foot swells out and the back of the boat was hitting the water first and the motor was going under. The wiring in the motor is all brand new just had the whole motor rewired this winter. I will check to see if there is any voltage

 

[thunderbolt1977]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

since i already have a brand new switch box for the motor i am just going to switch it out i am also having problems with my rectifer charging my batterys and it is a new rectifer so the switch box only makes more and more sense now. How often does a distributor go bad on one of these motors

 

[Gomer50]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

Cdi electronics has a troulbe shooting guide that can help you in testing your switchbox etc, etc,..
http://issuu.com/cdielectronics/docs/troubleshootingguide?mode=a_p

 

[Chris1956]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

The triggers go out whenever they feel like it. My '77 Merc 1500 sat under salt water for a week. The trigger survived only to fail two yars later..... Anything with continuous power on it (switchbox, solenoids) was eaten away from the salt and electricity

 

[thunderbolt1977]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

chris i have checked all items that you have suggested. I am getting spark from the distributor to the plugs. The coil is sparking very well also. The switch box passed all of the test. the only thing i have not checked it my timing belt i dont know where that i located.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: mercury 115hp 1150 thunderbolt 1977 water flooded

Timing belt drives the distributor pulley. Remove the spark plugs. Use a screwdriver to set the #1 cylinder to top dead center. Now see if the timing pointer indicates TDC (or is very close) on the timing decal. Now remove the distributor pulley cover bolt (5/16" wrench) and see if the cast arrow points to the punch mark(or is very close ) on the flywheel. If not, the flywheel is on wrong or the timing is set wrong.