Hello all, I'm new here for posting but have been reading quite a bit the last few days. I'm no expert but now that I've registered I'll throw my 2 cents into the mix when I can. Anyways, last week I picked up a 73 Glastron with an 850 merc. Serial # 7033648, and from what I can tell it is a 73 engine also.
The boat has been in a boathouse for the last 6 years, parked because for the couple years previous he was having constant electrical problems and couldn't bother with the hassle. At a marina he had the rotor + cap changed, a new switch box installed, the coil replaced, new plugs and all wiring checked. It still gave him trouble so he filled (literally i think...) the cylinders with oil and parked it.
So I put in a battery and gas and gave it a crank. Sure enough it fired up, didn't sound the greatest, had a bit of a knock. Checked compression and all 4 are almost identical and within range, but cyl 2 and 3 had a lot of oil/gas on the plugs. A lot. I took a tour around the bay and it gave me 35 mph no trouble. Probably should have started with cleaning the carbs but that's tomorrows project. Regardless, yesterday it wouldn't start, no sputter or cough, nothing. Pulled plugs and checked for spark. Nothing. I pulled the coil off to take a look, and the ceramic case was cracked and some windings melted. I found a replacement coil this morning and threw it in. It ran again, idled fine, but trying to put it into gear the engine just stalled. I pulled apart the distributor (brand new) so with nothing to clean or check I was at a loss, until I noticed spark plug wire 3 connected to distributor plug 2... wow.
I swapped 2 for 3 and put it all back together. Started great and just sounded so much better. (really... never would have guessed...) So I let it idle for 15-20 minutes before taking it around the lake. It sounded much better but the gps was reading a few mph slower. Okay fair enough its running I can deal with that later. Had it at full rpm for a few minutes when it totally shut off, the flywheel stopped on a dime, no slow deceleration just full out to dead stopped in the blink of an eye. Fearing the worst I turned the crank by hand and it turned freely, (whew!) so with the turn of a key it fired right back up. Weird. I managed to limp it home with a slightly knocky/shaky low rpm. Gave it some throttle close to home and it roared back up pretty well. I Pulled the plugs and they all look ok.
So my questions:
-How on earth did that engine run with plug wires swapped? I mean really now wtf? And how damaged is my engine because of it?
-Why did it die so abruptly earlier today?
-Besides new plugs tomorrow and the purchase of a timing light, what do I check next?
Any advice would be great, I don't want to hurt the beauty old engine and have very limited mercury experience! Thanks a lot.
The boat has been in a boathouse for the last 6 years, parked because for the couple years previous he was having constant electrical problems and couldn't bother with the hassle. At a marina he had the rotor + cap changed, a new switch box installed, the coil replaced, new plugs and all wiring checked. It still gave him trouble so he filled (literally i think...) the cylinders with oil and parked it.
So I put in a battery and gas and gave it a crank. Sure enough it fired up, didn't sound the greatest, had a bit of a knock. Checked compression and all 4 are almost identical and within range, but cyl 2 and 3 had a lot of oil/gas on the plugs. A lot. I took a tour around the bay and it gave me 35 mph no trouble. Probably should have started with cleaning the carbs but that's tomorrows project. Regardless, yesterday it wouldn't start, no sputter or cough, nothing. Pulled plugs and checked for spark. Nothing. I pulled the coil off to take a look, and the ceramic case was cracked and some windings melted. I found a replacement coil this morning and threw it in. It ran again, idled fine, but trying to put it into gear the engine just stalled. I pulled apart the distributor (brand new) so with nothing to clean or check I was at a loss, until I noticed spark plug wire 3 connected to distributor plug 2... wow.
I swapped 2 for 3 and put it all back together. Started great and just sounded so much better. (really... never would have guessed...) So I let it idle for 15-20 minutes before taking it around the lake. It sounded much better but the gps was reading a few mph slower. Okay fair enough its running I can deal with that later. Had it at full rpm for a few minutes when it totally shut off, the flywheel stopped on a dime, no slow deceleration just full out to dead stopped in the blink of an eye. Fearing the worst I turned the crank by hand and it turned freely, (whew!) so with the turn of a key it fired right back up. Weird. I managed to limp it home with a slightly knocky/shaky low rpm. Gave it some throttle close to home and it roared back up pretty well. I Pulled the plugs and they all look ok.
So my questions:
-How on earth did that engine run with plug wires swapped? I mean really now wtf? And how damaged is my engine because of it?
-Why did it die so abruptly earlier today?
-Besides new plugs tomorrow and the purchase of a timing light, what do I check next?
Any advice would be great, I don't want to hurt the beauty old engine and have very limited mercury experience! Thanks a lot.
