Clear flood mode procedure while starting try this and if still no start then try carb cleaner down the intake

Inline sealed spark checkers on all 8 while cranking the engine over and or starting it will tell you alot about that side of it

Glad you have a tech that is up front about all of it. If he is good at what he already knows and knows the basics step by step then he should be able to find the problem with your app. If he is a outboard tech ONLY I would question mark about all of this. just saying.

What scan tool is used here ?

Hi guys,

We finally had a chance to look at it again. Here's the latest...

We have replaced the ECM, Control Module, distributor cap, rotor button, distributor coil, ignition module, ignition coil & wire, all plugs and wires. We get spark at the coil, but not at the plugs. It's not a fuel problem... we have fuel, but no spark to light it.

We took the distributor apart again to see if we had blown another internal coil, but it was still good. We replaced it with another one anyway since we were in there.... just in case. Made no difference.

We noticed that the wiring harness -- where it connects to the engine harness -- looked a little "bubbled" as if it had gotten hot. Now, the thought is that there could be something wrong inside the wiring harness causing a short there. We're trying to find another harness we can use to test with. Might take one from the other engine if it's not too much trouble and there's enough slack in it.

At this point we are pretty stumped. We've literally replaced every electrical component we can think of thats related to ignition in any way.

To answer some previous questions you guys had...
-Yes... we did a compression and leak-down test on all cylinders. They all checked good.
-Shot of ether made no difference.
-Have not tried inline spark testers yet--- picked up a set yesterday. Tested spark at the plugs and distributor for arc and no-joy. Will try the testers for giggles, but at this point we're pretty sure there is no spark reaching the plugs at all.
-The scan tool is a Mercruiser Quicksilver Digital Diagnostic Terminal... a fairly large black box with a blue keypad area with black/yellow keys


Guys, I really do appreciate your responses and the ideas you've put forth. If you have any other suggestions, they are certainly welcome.

Thanks again to you all,
-Michael

U can ohm test the wiring harness and cannon plug pins male and female sides to find your dead spot then cut it out and use a jumper wire of the same gauge wire just to test and see if you can get spark at the spark plugs and or able to start the engine.

I still can not tell from your words if you have spark at the spark plugs or not ?

Use these as inline at the spark plug and boot connections (link posted below) - on all 8 this will tell you if you have spark on all 8 while cranking.

Putting an open spark plug up against the block to check for fire / spark you are really asking for it - 1 - is open spark in a engine compartment not good and gas fumes and second believe it or not - this is a good way to knockout your ECM checking for spark that way.

if people work on on their own boats you should have sealed inline spark checkers in your tool box plus a OEM service manual per your app.

Sealed inline spark checkers one the cheapest best tools to figure out if it is spark or fuel related problem.

http://www.amazon.com/Lisle-20610-In...P8XPDEYJTTMK0W

NEXT HAVE YOU CHECKED THE KILL SWITCH AND TAKE THAT OUT OF THE SYSTEM for testing purposes ?????

HAVE YOU tried another key switch or take that out of the mix and by pass it using a remoter starter switch at the engine side ????

Hi guys,

BUP -- No spark at the plugs at all. Used spark-testers as was suggested earlier to verify. I wish I could claim credit for working on my own engine. My mechanic comes to my house because the boat would take up his whole shop and I've got room in my garage for him to work. I'm just the one handing him tools when he needs them. :-)

Latest update... we may be onto something...

As a wild shot, we put a new ignition coil on and tried it again.... we had already replaced the coil once with a brand new one. This time the engine acted like it wanted to fire, but the timing was off... as we expected it to be since we never could re-adjust it. Here's the catch.... as the mechanic was adjusting the timing, the engine alarms chirped. That stopped us and made us scratch our heads. He continued working... and it chirped again. OK.. something is shorting out somewhere. He continued to adjust the timing and the engine started.

That was just too weird, so we kept digging. We found that if he pressed down on the distributor cap, it would cause the alarm to chirp. This behavior was readily repeatable. So we took the distributor cap back off again and started poking around. We found that the distributor shaft was loose enough that it would cause a ground-fault if you moved it in just the right way. We think this is the smoking gun. It would certainly explain the various fried parts and the inconsistent behavior. It just took an ever so subtle movement to cause the short.

In order to rule out insanity, we put the ignition coil we had replaced back in and the engine fired. So, not the coil after all. This further pointed us to the distributor causing these ghostly problems.

The distributor shaft itself looks fine, so it appears as though the housing has been "wallowed" out enough to allow something to touch that shouldn't be. We no longer suspect the wiring harness, and the grounding we found could explain some of the heat-ups in the harness.

Approach at this point is to get an entire new distributor since they don't sell the housing separately... plus, replacing the whole thing at this point rules out any other damaged components that may have resulted from ground-fault surges, wallowing, etc. A nice clean start.

So, with any luck, this will fix it. Fingers crossed.

Thanks again to you all,
-Michael