Engine died, won't start

[lushka16]

I had my boat out on the lake on the 3rd, and it died. It was working fairly well when I put it in the lake, but dieseled a little at one point, then hydrolocked. Once that was cleared, the boat worked just fine and dandy for half the day, until it just outright stopped working. The engine is a 4.3LX Merc.

I have plenty of fuel, and I checked sparks at every point there is a spark. The fuel pump works, and the filter is new and unclogged. I sprayed gas right into the cylinder, and still nothing. The spark plugs are bone dry.

The only thing I've recently changed is the plugs, wires, cap and rotor.

Any ideas?

 

[Coors]

Re: Engine died, won't start

no spark?

 

[Don S]

Re: Engine died, won't start

and I checked sparks at every point there is a spark.

Please explain how you checked for spark and where.

 

[lushka16]

Re: Engine died, won't start

Please explain how you checked for spark and where.

I checked for a spark at the ignition coil by putting a screwdriver on the end of the wire and grounding it. Then I checked for spark out of the distributor points the same way, and finally from the plug wires the same way.

I also pulled the plugs to inspect them, and found that they were not wet in the least.

 

[Don S]

Re: Engine died, won't start

That's not how you check spark.
Pull the center plug wire (That goes to the coil) out of the cap. Hold it about 1/2" away from a good clean ground and crank the engine. You should have a bright blue spark that jumps the gap.
What year is this 4.3LX????

 

[lushka16]

Re: Engine died, won't start

That's not how you check spark.
Pull the center plug wire (That goes to the coil) out of the cap. Hold it about 1/2" away from a good clean ground and crank the engine. You should have a bright blue spark that jumps the gap.
What year is this 4.3LX????

That's exactly what I did, except I needed to use the screw driver to get to a good clean ground. I had a bright blue spark the jumped the gap.

It's an 88.

 

[Don S]

Re: Engine died, won't start

You said you sprayed gas in the carb? How much gas???
Try dumping some gas in the carb (or squirt some in with a catsup bottle) and see if it will fire at all.

 

[lushka16]

Re: Engine died, won't start

You said you sprayed gas in the carb? How much gas???
Try dumping some gas in the carb (or squirt some in with a catsup bottle) and see if it will fire at all.

I filled a small paper bowl with gas and poured it in. I'd say it was probably 4-5 fl. oz. I can try putting more in tomorrow if that was too small of an amount to do anything.

I just pulled the carb, and I did not find anything to indicate that there was a problem. The float moves freely, and is within specification (1/8", correct?). The needle looks pretty good, and is new as of 2 weeks ago.

 

[lushka16]

Re: Engine died, won't start

Bump for new day

 

[Don S]

Re: Engine died, won't start

Bring up the timing mark to #1 TDC. and see if the rotor is pointed towards #1 spark plug wire.

Following that do a compression test. Like this.
http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Bullet/97/97_25.pdf

 

[lushka16]

Re: Engine died, won't start

Bring up the timing mark to #1 TDC.

What is the procedure for doing this?

 

[DayCruiser]

Re: Engine died, won't start

Mine did something similiar awhile back and it was the Kill switch that had gone bad. I don't know if you would get a spark if your kill switch was bad?

 

[Don S]

Re: Engine died, won't start

Remove all spark plugs, with your finger, plug the #1 spark plug hole, crank engine by hand until compression is felt in No. 1 cylinder.
Continue cranking until pointer lines up with timing mark on crankshaft pulley.
You are now at #1TDC on the compression stroke.

DC, the kill switch stops power to the coil (also spark) that is how it stops the engine.

 

[lushka16]

Re: Engine died, won't start

I found and fixed the problem!

I found TDC, and noticed that the rotor was not aligned. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the retaining pin on the rotor shaft had come off. I tightened the ring and replaced it, and put the rotor on the correct position. Everything works like a charm now.

 

[Dakota47]

Re: Engine died, won't start

good job..