1987 Bayliner Capri 30L OMC NO SPARK

"Hi all... Ive been reading on

"Hi all... Ive been reading on this board for a week ,gathering any infomation I could from previous post. Trouble Shot as much as I could.
The boat has been idle for about 6-7 years (always garage kept) Tried to start it and no spark.....I got a good Battery, Coil tested good, New alternator, Cap, Rotor, Condensor, Points (gaped @.019) Wires, Plugs. Have 12V at the Coil 9.7 +/- when cranking over.Has a tether switch, When removed no power at coil. Cleaned ALL conections I could find. Checked inline fuse.
Is there a ballast resistor?
Got the boat from me Uncle and he said someone put a reverse cable in it and hasnt run since???? Checked the shifter positioning switch and seems fine. Will only turn over in Nutral.
Has about 20-30 hrs on new motor and had a new lower unit before it was put away at its last run.

So I need some help Im starting to chase my tail.
Earl"

"The Cobra's don't hav

"The Cobra's don't have a ballast resistor but a resistor wire instead. There is actually 2 feeds to the coil, while starting it gets a full 12v from the key and once started and the key is in the run position it goes through the resistor wire to drop the 12v down. Where are you checking for spark? Can you pull the high voltage wire from the coil out of the the dist cap and check it there."

Thanks for the fast reply. I c

Thanks for the fast reply. I checked for my voltage on the + terminal on the coil. Checking for spark at the plug grounding it out to the motor pull loop. How shoul I check? I have voltage on the point its self

I will put an alegator one the

I will put an alegator one the HV wire and check. What shoul I get for a volt reading?

If you can hold the coil HV wi

If you can hold the coil HV wire close to the block you should see a spark from it. If you do then you might have a problem with the distributor cap or the rotor itself.

"Bob,
No juice from HV cable.

"Bob,
No juice from HV cable. New coil installed also.
like I said before im not the first to look at this. could someone put the wires in reverse on the coil? I got the wire going to the DIST. and two light blue on the - side of thr coil .... a red, blue with purple black strip on +"

"since this boat would not sta

"since this boat would not start after new cable was installed because of loosing reverse, Could this have been installed wrong?"

"Earl...if you mean you had a

"Earl...if you mean you had a new lower shift cable installed that should not have anything to do with this problem unless something was disturbed accidently.

Are you sure that these are the correct points or that maybe the black wire from them to the coil didn't get installed incorrectly so that it's grounded all the time?

The + side of the coil should have a purple/black wire from the starter solenoid that gives you 12v while cranking, should also be a red/purple wire (this is the resistor wire) that comes from a splice off the alternator. The - side of the coil should have the black wire from the dist and 2 gray wires, one comes from the ESA module and the other goes up to the dash to feed the tach. It's possible your ESA could be shot causing a short to ground on the gray wire or even the tach could be causing a problem. You could try to start it with both of those gray wires off and just leave the black on from the dist."

"All set there is a switch on

"All set there is a switch on the out drive. When trimmed all the way up, wont start. lower trim and it actuates the switch....Ever hear of this? I un-taped every wire in the harness and checked every Wire and connection AGAIN cut out all corroded and rusted connectors and replaced. Came accrossed this switch, ohmed it out and it was bad. My uncle had some parts lying around from a blown drive. As luck would have it, there it was!!!!! Fires right up purs like a kitten. Just got to change all the fluids and dump it in the water. Then Im sure ill be back here with a ton more ailments to ask about....LOL
I know this is a harsh Question and see tons of discusion about it BUT..... What motor oil and drive oil do YOU recomnend!!!! I live in Upstate NY
THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!
Earl"

BTW what does ESA stand for an

BTW what does ESA stand for and where is it located?

"I've never heard of a Cob

"I've never heard of a Cobra having any kind of a switch like that and I've had 5 of them. I don't see it in any wiring diagram. The only thing on the outside of the drive is the trim sender and all it does is feed a signal to the trim gauge but has nothing to do with anything else.

As for engine oil, I've always used only SAE 30 and I've always been able to get drive oil from the dealer either OMC Hi-Vis or more recently their ULTRA HPF oil.

ESA (Electronic Shift Assist) is a black module with a couple of wire harnesses, a 2 wire and a 4 wire usually mounted on top of the engine off to one side close to where your shift cables are."