[Brian Belcher]

So, wife and I pull out at too early.
The oldest son and family finally show up at 11am (shock)
Headed back to launch for "stuff" and in middle of lake, motor pops hard.
Dead.
I check fuel by looking for accelator pump. Plenty of fuel.
Next is fire.
None.
Got 12V going to coil. But no sparks at plugs or directly from coil. Check ohms at primary side and I'm only at .6. Should be 1.6-1.7.
Check primary + to secondary. 11.3ish.
Neither is good and I start pouring ice water over it to no avail.
Luckily, my sons boss just so happens to be on the same lake and very close.
Tows us in and we just got home.
Very tired and ill finish the story tomorrow. Meet someone very important to us

[Brian Belcher]

The cool part of the adventure;
So, I live in Arkansas, the home of Mr. Fulks. And, we seem to have a large fleet of Mariahs here.
So, like I said before, my coil went out and we were dead in the water. My sons boss just so happen to be on the lake with his friends and one of them owned a Z212 and is the nephew of Mr. Fulks. No kidding.
I take it as the truth cause he knew too much about his uncles details.
Being towed back in by another Mariah and by a family member of the owners of the company

[Firestone]

Small world

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Brian Belcher]

I should change the name of this thread so the info might come up on a search.
The dead motor;
I homes the old coil out. I was only getting .6-.7 across them. So I put a new coil on today. I tested it before I put it on and got 1.7 ohms across the primaries but only 11 ohms from either primary to the secondary. (the hole you plug the wire into to go to the distributor). Now, if I remember right, it should be in the 13's.
Regardless, no fixie!!
That leaves two other components. The sensor ($55) or the module ($400+). Did more testing by checking for batt voltage on the red/white. 14V present.
Then, taking a spark plug out and grounding the threads, pulled the green/white wire apart and started quickly grounding it from the module. The spark plug started sparking.
Huge relief cause that means the sensor is bad and that's good. Only $55 !!!
Ordered the Weber/Carter carb rebuild kit and the carb kit for our Kohler gen set too.

[dafucwuzat]

Bad times with cool results.

[Brian Belcher]

Huge updates and they are all good right now.
So, new coil did not fix. Put the new ignition sensor ($57 orig Mercruiser part) inside the dizzy this afternoon and still no start. My heart was sad now cause that left no more thing and the cheapest I could get it (orig Mercruiser part also) was $340. Oh, it was the ignition module mounted on the side of the dizzy.
Before I made the order to overnight here so we could get it wet this weekend, I decided to go through my trouble shooting steps again to make sure I wasn't missing anything. For some reason,( I have ZERO doubt what lead me to look) I decided to check the dizzy bug for getting dizzy. Didn't to either cause that meant the timing chain set was broke, not bad a fix, or the cam shaft was broke, definite weekend killer but I could do it, OR, PLEASE LORD LET IT BE !!!!!, the distributor gear was wore or the drift pin had broken.
Sure enough, the bug was hopping and jumping. So, the timing chain is good !! Cam could still be broken or the gear pin could be sheared.
Pull the distributor VERY VERY carefully. Didn't want the gear falling off if pin was broke.
Praise my sweet LORD, the distributor gear !!!!!!!!
Simple and easy and very cheap, comparitively speaking. $35~55 USD.
I'll get it tomorrow and new Mobil 1 oil and filter...time it up and cross my fingers.

These gears are MADE to wear out and not the gear on the cam shaft. It did it's job and I'm thankful for that. Another issue is the material the gear is made of. My roller motor uses a different material vs. the old school, flat tappet cam and lifters. You can buy gears made of 300M or 4130 chro mo but why?? I'm buying the bone stock gear that Chevy put in there in 1997.

I'll add pics of the gear later. They are on my phone but I in't smart enough to get the pic from my phone to this here pooter.

It's been a better day then it could have been, for sure !!

PS Sorry for no spellchecking. I ain't smart enough to finger it out on the pooter whereas my phone does it automatically

[Brian Belcher]

Here you go

[Brian Belcher]

I should wait to give my full report but I'm too excited to wait till we run it on the lake.
The final verdict is;
The jeany oil we use,25W-40, is a major strain on our distributors. For those whom didn't know, the gear on the distributor also spins the oil pump. So, the gear on dizzy stick not turns the rotor bug, the distributor shaft turns the oil pump on the other end.
The changing of the gear was easy. Getting the oil pump slot to line up with distributor shaft, literally a huge, straight slot screwdriver, was a chore.
Then the monkey wrench was tossed in....
The timing marks.
I found the TDC line etched into the harmonic balancer. The tab off the timing chain cover didn't exist. I thought it had been broken off. I researched the sheet out of it and everything showed the tab.
So, I make a 25.16" long, tape timing mark to put on the balancer. I pulled #1 plug and felt the piston to TDC. I was planning to use the what was left of what thought was the bracket for holding the timing tab. I twisted around to put tape on with "0" at the piece when I noticed very lightly etched timimg marks on balancer itself.
Kinda of a cuss fit/happier than happy moment. (Kinda the theme of this thread!!).
Grounded out the timing wire, ran the idle mixture screws till I got best vacuum, idled it back down to 650rpm than set the timing to 10 BTDC. The motor is ABSOLUTELY PURRING. I'm going to put a full glass of tea (unsweet, of coarse) and film how smooth it is.
I've learned a lot about our new boat these last 5 days.
But I love it.

7.4L GenVI, Thunderbolt V, Bravo III w/22 props. Also learned DON'T BUY ANYTHING WITH BASS PRO ON IT !!! It's cheap junk and it is ALWAYS priced 25-50% higher than Academy

[Hunter12345]

Brian, is it a difficult thing to adjust idle fuel/ air mixture? I flooded mine, and i dont know if that caused a black soot on the transom. But i may be running rich. You seem to know a lot about mercruiser motors..
But you are right, mercs idle beautifully.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Hunter12345]

Oops apologies i thought this was my thread! Lol sry bud.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk