Old Mercury 1150 Wiring Questions

[jmark111]

First off id like to say hello! first post on the forums after learning allot of info from the site!'

Now down to the fun stuff!

I recently bought a project boat. it came with a 115hp mercury outboard, Serial Number is 7038276. First issue is i cant track down the year of the motor. The main issue i have is that the controls in the boat are Quicksilver controls with a mercury eight pin connector. My motor has a 6 pin connector. I am trying to wire the controls into the motor without using a plug, essentially hard wiring the two together. I have wired the ones that i know of together and currently the motor turns over, choke works and that is about it. Checked for spark and i have nothing. No spark in all cylinders. I have heard stories of kill switches being an issue and causing no spark. I have also heard of neutral safety switches being an issue aswell. My question is has anyone tried doing this? or can confirm that what wires goes to where? Or should i look into other issues for no spark. I never did see this motor running as it was laying in the boat at purchase. I have attached two pictures of the wiring that i have at the start. Any Help would be greatly appreciated as it would be very nice for this old boat to see the water before summer is done

Thanks in advance!

 

[jmark111]

i spent a few hours this evening at my boat pondering what the issues can be. and i have now realized what i think my problem is. i removed the wire that leads to the center of the distributor from the ignition coil, and found no good connection just bare wires. My question is now can i buy the male end and crimp it to the wire or am i looking to buy a new ignition coil for it? i will post a picture of the distributor side of the engine in a few hours, it will show what wire im talking about.

 

[jmark111]

Here are some pictures of progress so far, and potentially a better picture of engine to figure out what year it is. Picture one shows the wire im talking about and how it is just bare wires. do you guys know what type of connector i would need to plug it back into the distributor? Picture two is the distributor side of the engine. and the third picture is TEMPORARY WIRING!!! Once i have it fired up and i know everything is correct with the wiring then i will Solder and heat shrink all the connections. Again Guys Any Help is greatly appreciated!

 

[roscoe]

serial number indicates 1974 Canadian.

 

[jmark111]

thanks for that info. i was thinking a 74 or 75 great to actually confirm that. and Canadian makes sense!

 

[Chris1956]

The high voltage wire from the coil should screw into the distributor cap. You need to see if you can get the old threaded connection out of the distributor cap. Caps are $100+ new, so be careful. Rotors are $200+ new and a lot of work to replace. they are not removeable and fragile.

The high voltage wire should pull out of the coil.

One of your other issues are the different wiring harnesses between the boat and the motor. The motor will have the old color scheme: red(battery), black(ground), yellow(starter solenoid), grey(choke), brown(tach signal) and white (ign power) wires.

Your Mercontrol will have the newer wire color scheme and those need to be connected to red (battery) , black(ground), yellow/red(starter solenoid), yellow/black(choke), grey(tach signal) and purple(ign power)

Your harness may have a black/yellow wire. that is used on newer ignitions than your's. The old wire color was salmon or orange. I doubt you will see it in the engine harness.

You must have +12VDC on the red and adjacent white wires on the switchbox, in order to have spark.

 

[jmark111]

HUGE THANK YOU for that info!!!! Now my next question is with the white wire on the motor does it need constant 12v power or should it be connected to the purple control wire for key switched 12v power? And the black/yellowwire for the killswitch lanyard be connected to the motor somehow??

 

[Chris1956]

White wire on switchbox needs ignition power. It should be connected to the purple wire in the boat harness.

If you want to connect the killswitch, connect it to the terminal on the switchbox, that already has the mercury switch connected. It will be a brown wire and also have one of the distributor wires connected. You will likely need to run a new wire to make the connection, as your engine harness probably doesn't have one.

 

[jmark111]

Awesome! Really appreciate all your help. Hopefully ill get some time after work to go to the boat andd see if i can get spark! If she sparks shes going into the test tank! Ill let yea know how things go!

 

[jmark111]

Well Just got the motor fired up in a test tank! thanks everyone for your help!!! now my issue is it hasnt been ran for so that it doesnt want to idle. im thinking the carbs need to be cleaned but curious if you guys think some sort of gas treatment would help it all. going to change the impeller in the lower unit i the next day or so and hopefully get it in the water and run some gas through it! so happy to see this thing fire up!!!

 

[jmark111]

Well first off, the boat floats. no leaks or anything. felt good to have it floating!!! now my issue is since i changed the impeller i cannot for the life of me get the outboard back into the proper gears!!! i have tried and tried and triad again to get it back together and have the boat shift properly from neutral to forward or reverse! Do you guys have any tips on aligning the little shift linkage on the lower leg of this motor!

 

[Chris1956]

Sure, drop the gearcase and set the motor control to neutral. Now turn the propshaft and see if it spins freely (neutral), ratchets when turned CW (forward) or turns 1/3 turn in either direction before engaging the driveshaft (reverse).

If neutral just install it and wiggle the throttle handle to help it align. If forward, turn the shift shaft CCW with a cresent wrench until it clicks into neutral. If in reverse, turn the shfit shaft CW until it clicks into neutral. Now install it.

The gearcases fit tight, so lots of wiggling of it into place is necessary. Use finger tight pressure on nuts to help hold it in place. Have motor tilted all the way up to balance weight. Turn flywheel to align driveshaft splines.