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Crusader - circuit breaker

bobct

Advanced Contributor
I'm helping troubleshoot an issue on my friends boat that he just picked up. It has twin 454's, 1984's. We ran the boat back about 200 miles and it ran perfect but randomly shutdown and immediately restart as if nothing happened. I have already swapped coils, no change. The coils, distributors, wires/cap rotor and ignition modules look brand new (Prestolite). I have an extra module I can swap next. I replaced the IGN switches already a well.

Do vintage '84 engines have the 50a resettable circuit breaker like my '88's do? I haven't looked too hard for it either but wondering if breakers have been standard Crusader equipment in general. This is on my suspect list along with the engine wiring harness connector and battery cables/engine ground. There is really no build up or stumble before the shutdown so I have pretty much ruled out fuel and because it starts right back up. Both engines get to around 4,200 no problem. It has mechanical fuel pumps.

What do you guys think? In the meantime, I never resolved my WOT issue but need to do that soon so I'm no carrying that issue into next year.

Bob
 
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It should have the 50amp breaker.....and it could be at end of life given its years.....

the 50amp breaker protects the instrument panel and ignition switch as well...some riggers also install an additional breaker (or fuse) at the instrument panel itself. Don't forget the ballast resistor could be fractured too.....
 
That drop out should show on the dash voltmeter. Beyond that, I'd guess ign module. I had one go intermittant for a couple times before total death.
 
thanks for posting that but I did already replace the Start and On/Off IGN switches on that engine and i didn't fix the issue. They needed to be done anyway so no harm. In the meantime, I swapped out the IGN module which only looked to be a year or two old and it was flawless with just one test run. I told my friend we need 2-3 more runs before we can call it fixed but so far so good.
 
Check to see if the ignition coil is getting hot? If so the ballast is bad or not present. The module requires battery voltage if it is getting ballast voltage that could be an issue as well. Is that a pertronix module conversion from a points system?
 
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