Hello,<br />I have an 87 22' Imperial with a 260 HP Mercruiser & Alpha One. Still have an issue with being able to keep it running after engine is warm at idle speeds but now I got another major issue. I had it it out this weekend. While taking off from a dead start with a haevy load pulling a tube, I heard a pop - like a backfire and then had excessive vibration. Boat had no power from there on. Made it back at slow speed but something was definetly wrong - knocking if I tried to accelerate, a drive shaft like vibration while just maintaining a slow speed, and ticking noise. Got it home and started it up with rabbit ears. The ticking is the ignition coil arching from the center cable post to both postitive and negative terminals. I suspect the coil is bad. Motor seems fine mechanically. Can't imagine a faulty coil/ignition system causing a feeling like the driveshaft was wobbling. Is that possible? The prop spins fine in neutral but I did not try putting it in gear with rabbit ears on. Since one guy mentioned the running at idle problem may be the distributor cap..., I think I may put a new ignition coil and cap on and go from there. <br /><br />With an Alpha One drive and the 260 HP motor, am I putting to much of a load on the drive and motor with tubbing. I wouldn't think so, but the tubes sometimes get loaded up with water and I know if that happens, my drive/boat literally bogs to a stop. Normally water in the tube is not an issue though. But these tubes can be quite a large and with a couple of riders, plus 4-5 riders in the boat, this boat pulls pretty hard at first but brings it up to speed with no trouble. I am just concerned with the ignition failing under load like this that I am exceeding the ratings on the motor and drive from a mechanical as well as perhaps an electrical standpoint. Thanks again for any responce.<br /><br />Mark
