hoowahfun
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2016
- Messages
- 186
Hey everyone, I've been working on a new to me boat to get up and running that has an 87 3.0 Merc in it. I installed a new starter this past weekend and while checking if it would turn over noticed some puffing/backfiring through the carb (twice) and through the exhaust in the outdrive once. Figured the timing was off so I got around to looking at the distributor today and found that the previous owner had installed the Petronix ignitor conversion. I have a basic and somewhat limited understanding of how this setup works, seeing as how this is the first motor I've ever worked on that wasn't a full electronic ignition system.
A few things I noticed are that it was a little dirty inside when I pulled the cap off, so I figure at a minimum clean that up. Next, the tab thing that contacts the underside of the cap where the coil wire comes in has a hole in it, and just beneath the tab looked suspect, but I have no idea what it's supposed to look like new. On the underside of the black piece holding the tab something looked a little damaged, but can't be sure. See photos. There were also two places that the red wire was split open between the grommet and the module and one place the black wire was pinched. Would it be acceptable to just wrap this with electrical tape or liquid tape? Or maybe splice the wire? Would like to avoid buying a new module if possible. Finally, the location on the distributor base for the grommet is right next to the engine block, forcing the wires to rub together. Can this be rotated 90 degrees CC to get this off the block??
The other thing I'm not sure about is how in the world do I set the timing on this since there are no points, dwell, etc? Again, I'm new to distributors so sorry for some of the dumb questions. I wasn't able to make much sense of some of posts I read through my searches or the service manual since the pics were bad.
Let me know your thoughts on what you see, and thanks for the help!
A few things I noticed are that it was a little dirty inside when I pulled the cap off, so I figure at a minimum clean that up. Next, the tab thing that contacts the underside of the cap where the coil wire comes in has a hole in it, and just beneath the tab looked suspect, but I have no idea what it's supposed to look like new. On the underside of the black piece holding the tab something looked a little damaged, but can't be sure. See photos. There were also two places that the red wire was split open between the grommet and the module and one place the black wire was pinched. Would it be acceptable to just wrap this with electrical tape or liquid tape? Or maybe splice the wire? Would like to avoid buying a new module if possible. Finally, the location on the distributor base for the grommet is right next to the engine block, forcing the wires to rub together. Can this be rotated 90 degrees CC to get this off the block??
The other thing I'm not sure about is how in the world do I set the timing on this since there are no points, dwell, etc? Again, I'm new to distributors so sorry for some of the dumb questions. I wasn't able to make much sense of some of posts I read through my searches or the service manual since the pics were bad.
Let me know your thoughts on what you see, and thanks for the help!
