1979 260 , 350 wiring ?

Here's situation. Boat came in shop last week , just started on it this afternoon for about 2 hrs. Boat cobalt 1979 with 260 , 350 cid. Customer replaced head on port side, water pump, fuel pump,exhaust and riser gaskets and new carb. Customer said he needs valves adjusted on port side and timing set and coil replaced. Motor has Mallory distubuter unilite I thank. Has module , had Accell coil 12 volt no external resistor , replaced coil with new Accell coil same type, positive side on old coil nut was stripped. Customer had clipped( cut) brown wire to tach. He said on phone it was getting smoking hot. He said he had motor running. Mallory distubuter has red wire from pos. side of coil and green wire from neg. side of coil and brown wire to ground. Ok adjusted valves on port side. Installed valve cover , marked balancer and tab 8° before. Turned motor over , no start , hooked up ferrat lite. No spark, used grounded type spark tester one #1 spark plug wire no spark. Checked ignition switch have 12.6 with key off and 12.6 key on. It's 3 post ignition switch all have 12.6. Did continuity test on shift interup switch.
It was a closed loop at all times. So took little phillips screw at connection for shift interuped switch. Still no spark . went to coil pos. side key on 5.34 volts. I'm going to look at in the morning. This system I think had a ballast resistor when it still used points, and they were near coil , can't find. I have cdi cheater key switch but only has the two large pins, this motor harness with 3 large pins so can't eliminate boat side harness. Any input would be appreciated. The thing about this boat is boat side harness is routed at top of gunnell and panel runs length of boat , no access. Thanks

unplug the engine plug, hot wire to coil +, and jump slave ....................................

Where does coil get 12v. ?

Unplug. Hot wire to coil, how. will coil have 12v., not understanding

Ground issue through slave solenoid ?

Thanks your talking about eliminating boat side harness.

NEVER believe what a customer tells you
Yes , for testing, jumper comes from the battery+

..."NEVER believe what a customer tells you"

Hear! Hear!

Jeff

the engine harnesses from that timeframe had the resistance wire feeding the coil....unless it was a TB-IV originally....

and a short test run will not hurt it

Based on the voltage he may have a internal resister coil combined with the wire harness, wire resister (~ 2 ohms) ........Normally with just the wire there would be ~ 8-10 volts


Also a 1979 wiring may be a bit rough.............who knows what type of 12 volt signal coming from key switch...could be weak even though the wire shows 12.6 current flow could be LOW........

If it is really a unilite, you can get the troubleshooting sheet off of the web.....and most Mallory ignition modules require some form of ballast resistor to have long service lives. what may be there doesn't mean its anywhere close to optimal...

Thanks for all replies everyone. Disconnected boat side harness, hot wire from batt. to + side of coil, jumped slave solenoid wow got fire. Motor side harness has the shift interup and tach. wires combined into 1 eyelet on - side of coil ( brown) . found problem it's either tach or tach wire in boat harness. Hope customer doesn't want new wire ran if it is wire, that cobalt boat has gunnel panel from top to floor from helm to stern, a large upholstered panel with arm rest,
ash trays and cigs. lighters. First boat I've seen with 4 ash trays an 4 lighters. Have always heard that cobalt made a top of the line boat. I found out that Mallory unilite dizzy has a infrared module and shutter tangs on rotor , if tang is blocking eye on module the - side of coil
Should have 2 or less volts. This is a unilite 37 series dizzy. You test by pulling cap and rotor, turn key on and slip a credit card in between eye with ohm meter on - side . voltage should drop from 12 + volts to 2 volts or less. Thanks for info guys.