2.3 starter relay sticking

I would rebuild the dist. and buy a new coil. Keep the old coil for a spare. a new coil is only like $50. I bet she will run like a champ after that!!!

Boatin Bob... I got my boat back still only runs a while gets hot and shuts down. I've already paid this shop over $600 and they can't figure it out. They wanted to replace dist with an electronic which would take 2-3 weeks to get at $500. But still admit that it would only be a guess. Their guessing is costing me money. Ok Here is the stats. I took it to the water after picking it up Friday(left on trailer). I connected meter to + side of coil. With the key on 4V. Starting 12 and running around 10. It runs smooth. I opened up the throttle and I got 13.6V .Does that seem high? After about 15v minutes it started idling rough. Voltage remained around 10. If I pushed down on the distributor cap it would clear up the idle. If I would push the dist. forward it would stumble and go to die. He had the distributor off and could find nothing wrong with it. 3 weeks ago he installed a ballast resistor . He spliced it in on the purple wire on the boat side of the engine connector. and disconnected the purple/red at the coil. connecting the the ballast to coil. Looking at the wiring diagram you provided does this look right to you? Shouldn't the ballast be wired in from the Alternator? Meanwhile I have located a brand new OEM distributor (Points not convertible to electronic) for around$350. I think it ran 22 years on points , Why change over? Also they told me they couldn't get the dwell down past 40 it would just drop off.So now it is at 42 instead of 36. Timing at 8 instaed of 10. I'm out over $600 and all I really got was a carb rebuild.

It sounds like his ballast resistor is OK and he did disconnect the resistor wire. Has the dist cap been changed through all of this and the rotor? I know he put new points in. When you lean or push the dist does it feel sloppy? Also check the black wire that attaches to the points inside the dist and where it comes out to make sure it's not frayed or got any nicks in it, you don't want it grounding out.

Does the ballast seem connected properly to you? is 13.6 v at the pos side of coil OK when full throttle? I thought the ballast should be inline in the prpl/rd wire so there will always be reduced voltage at the coil except for the full voltage when starting coming from the prpl/black. As it is now I get around 4v with key on not running . Checked black wire from points inside distributor, changed rotor and it made noise so he put back the original one. I replaced cap, wires, rotor and plugs last fall. Sierra brand. He said if it were a bad cap it would be bad all the time. He didn't see anything wrong with it. ????

The ballast needs to be tied to 12v somewhere, you can't tie it to the pur/red wire as that is your old resistor wire, that would change the resistance (it would add the 2 together). When you measure with the key on it will depend if the points are closed or not as to how much you will see at the time. 13.6v definitely seems too high when running at WOT but then your voltage has always seemed too high to me (is your meter reliable?) Maybe the darn coil is just overheating due to the voltage being too high. Do you know what sizer of resistor he put in there?

I see what you mean about the tie in of the ballast resistor. I don't know how many ohm resistor he put in. He told me he got it at NAPA I will look it up. I thought the voltage was too high too. This mechanic said no. The parts guy at O'reiily said no . However my cousin is 35 year car mechanic and he agrees with you. I found another thread and this guy said he just put on a new alternator and he gets 14.2 at the battery. I tried to get mine tested but , they couldn't without specs. Hmm. Meters good. Should the voltage rise with the increase in engine speed? That might be pointing to the regulator ??? I disconnected all engine wires and opened up the wiring loom to expose the splices in there and they are all heat shrinked and clean. I thought I might find some corrosion, but evry thing looks Ok. I will tape it all up and run it for a while this evening. I will look into a larger resistor. and try that maybe. The shop did tell me the boat would start up if they switched the coil out . It does get hot, can hardly hold your hand on it. They said if it was too hot you couldn't touch it. ?? I will look into getting the alt tested at an Starter/alternator place.