OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

[bianchija]

I have a 77 Ford 302 OMC package and the engine seems to run perfectly while in nuetral. As soon as I engage it into drive, foward or reverse it kills the engine. I have replaced the fuel filter and cleaned the gas tanks, I have checked the fuel pump, replaced the plug wires, replaced the distributor cap, reset the timing, and set the air/fuel mixture. None of this has worked. I checked the voltage to the coil and it only reads 7 volts. I pulled the power line off the coil and it reads 12 volts, but when I put it back on it again drops to 7. Is that normal? I ran power directly from the battery to the coil and it read 12 volts, which makes sense, but I'm wondering about the resistor dropping it all the way to 7 once it hits the coil and reading 12 when not on the coil. Anyway, all ideas would be a great help. I know I'm close but I can't place my finger on it. Thanks.

 

[TwoBallScrewBall]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

Is your ESA working right? Sounds like it might not be disengaging. Just a thought.

 

[rattana]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

I think your shift interrupt switch is out of adjustment. If you do a search you will find how to set it up.

 

[Thecol]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

i beleive its th switch myslef

 

[bianchija]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

I'm not sure what the ESA is. Please fill me in. I will look into the shift interupt switch, thanks for the advice. As a note, I should clarify that it does engage into drive, but the engine starts sputtering and shortly chokes out. I can move it into drive, it starts sputtering and as soon as I bring it back it sounds great again. When in drive, as I accelerate it sounds like it's popping and coughing, etc.

 

[bianchija]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

Ok, I look into the ESA and what it is. It does appear to be working correctly. One person suggested that I put an electronic ignition in the boat, but I just read you can't if you have the ESA module. Is that true?

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

Joe...you can put a Pertronix in if you build their special modification to make it work with OMC-ESA, here is a link to the PDF file which shows the mod OMC-ESA fix

 

[bianchija]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

Thank you for the info. I will definately give this a shot. Something I found last night was that the power for the ballast resistor to the coil has 12 volts, but when I connect it to the coil it drops to 7.8. By the time the power gets through the coil it has dropped to 5.2 volts, which is what the distributor is receiving. Is that normal? It doesn't seem like enough juice.

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

How are you measuring the voltage, across the coil or plus side of coil and engine ground? The 5.2v is way too low. You could disconnect the resistor wire and run a jumper in it's place to give 12v all the time, just as a test to see how it runs. You don't mention above that you changed the points/condenser, crap on them can affect this.

 

[bianchija]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

I have the coil and condensor in my car right now. I am planning on purchasing an electronic ignition, as well as a new coil. Hopefully that can help me out. As far as the voltage, i ground the multimeter on the battery, the tested the voltage going into the coil at the 7.8, then measure the voltage coming out on the left side at the 5.2. Am I doing this correctly?

 

[bianchija]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

I forgot to mention that while runnning and in idle the coil output reads 4.8 volts. The 5.2 is when I just turn the key to the start position.

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

Joe...as far as I know you should have 4 wires on the coil 2 on the pos and 2 on the neg. Of the 2 pos one should come from the key in start to give the coil a full 12v to start easier, when the key is released to the on position you now have 12v going through the resistor wire to give you something less 7-9v. The neg side should a have a wire coming from the points in the dist and the other wire should come from the ESA. You mentioned above that the ESA appears to be working, what do you base that on? You should be able to manually trip the ESA while running in neutral by lifting up on the arm on the switch and if the engine stumbles, the unit itself is working, if you do this and it stalls then you have to fix that problem first.

 

[bianchija]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

I'll give that a shot on the ESA. I only assumed it was working because it shifts into gear and I can start moving along, however I don't know much about the ESA module so it could be malfunctioning. I will let you know. As far as the coil only one wire contacts the positive side, and it comes from the resistor. Do you know what the voltage should be coming out, meaning the voltage to the dis and the ESA module. Does the 4.8 volts while runnning signify a problem? DO you have any ideas as to where I can get some information on the ESA switch. I 'm not aware of it and don't know where to begin looking. Thanks for the help.

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

OK...you don't really have voltage going out to the dist or ESA, the dist via the points provide the ground to complete the circuit to the coil, when points are open, coil can't charge, points close, coil charges and spark. The ESA kind of messes up the ground to the coil so that the points can't make the coil fire as often as normal thus the engine stumbles and drops in RPM's. Not exactly sure where the ESA is on your engine but look for the shift cable bracket, you should have 2 cables, the one on top comes from your remote control and the bottom cable goes to the outdrive. Right at this shift bracket you should see 2 microswitches, one has the arm and roller and fits into the v shaped notch, this si the one to test the ESA with.

 

[bianchija]

Re: OMC 302 idles great, dies in drive...

Bob...I will check out that switch and let you know. Thanks for the advice.