Happened to me at the river last week. Allothesuddn' DEAD! 10 miles from anywhere. Plugged in my spare module and away we went. Thank God I allways carry a spare! Most likely, it's the module. Attaches to drivers side riser with three small bolts and plastic spacers to mount it with 4 or five wires to it . It is a trangular mount.

Wait a minute here, both engines or one?

Just one engine wont work. if i hook up a test light to the coil on the neg and the positive on the coil i get nothing. if i ground my light to the block i can touch either the pos or neg on my coil and the light lights????? that doesnt make sense... this is all with the key on.

Pull your cap and rotor off, the ignition module should be to the back of the distibutor, that sounds like the issue

Just one engine wont work. if i hook up a test light to the coil on the neg and the positive on the coil i get nothing. if i ground my light to the block i can touch either the pos or neg on my coil and the light lights????? that doesnt make sense... this is all with the key on.

I re -up my first thought. Its the module, plug a new one in and play.....

That does make sense. The coil is energized from the purple wire on the + side. The coil is continuous to the - side so you will get 12 v there too. The ignition module grounds the coil to fire it based on the timing and distributor sensor input. After checking grounds/connections, switch coils between motors first. Then switch distributors between motors. Last thing I would look at is the module.

Hmmmm, i will try module first, cause its the easiest, then the coil. after i check all the grounds. I will let you know. I appreciate the help!!

I show 0 volts on the bad side but i only show 3.5 volts on th side that works perfect.

I think my problem has nothing to do with the ignition system. I have 2 volt power in weird places. They have electric fuel pumps on this boat. They pulled power from the purple wire that goes to the main wiring harness for the pump. some times i have no voltage at the coil on the positive side and sometimes i have 12v. If a boat has electric fuel pumps where should the power be taken from?

duh