'86 150 lost fire on 3

[studlymandingo]

Went out for a little 4th of July cruise yesterday and everything was running great on my '86 150HP Mariner. We stopped at the beach to chill out for a while, throw the ball for the dog, etc and when I went to restart to leave, the motor was barely running and sounded terrible. I noticed a lot of unburnt fuel was making it out the exhaust. I got out my spark-gap tester and started checking wires; starboard side everything a-ok, port-side, no spark on any hole. I switched wires to the coils and the spark moved; I replaced the stator last summer, so I am assuming the switchbox died.

Used my SeaTow membership for the first time yesterday!​

 

[j_martin]

Re: '86 150 lost fire on 3

Yup, or stator again.

 

[Laddies]

Re: '86 150 lost fire on 3

Studly, to tell if it's a stator or box swap the red to the red/white and the blue to the blue/white on the boxes, if the spark changes sides it's the stator, if not it's a box

 

[studlymandingo]

Re: '86 150 lost fire on 3

Thanks guys; it is definitely the box. I did the wire swap while I was still on the water. Thanks to all the troubleshooting skills I have developed while reading about my Merc here, I knew what to check first. I was really hoping to be able to go home under my own power, but I was really glad for my SeaTow membership when I realized that wasn't going to happen. I'm glad it happened while I was close to home instead of 25-30 miles offshore.

It never gave any indication that it was going to fail; everything was running great on the way out; just a no-go on restarting to head home. I guess they just go out?

The resin in the inoperable switchbox is MUCH darker than that in the working one, is that what it looks like when they go?​