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2001 Volvo Penta GL 5.0 won't start

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Cggx205

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I charged up the battery and hooked up the hose hit the key and the motor cranked and cranked. Normally on the first start of the season it cranks a few times but starts fairly quickly with the aid of the electronic fuel pump. No luck this year. I originally thought no fuel or bad gas so I went to go get a can of starting fluid(ether) and still nothing. So I starting checking plug wires and I didn't see a spark when the motor turned over. Then I pulled off the coil and found no spark there when I turned the motor over. I used my meter and found 12.5 volts at the purple side + of the coil but I wasn't getting any spark. So I replaced the coil and still no luck. Out of ideas. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Yes it does. It turned to 4k and then back to 0k. Not exactly following engine RPM but it did move. I also started checking connections at the ignition switch and the lanyard and didn't find any problems. Started cleaning for an hour or so and then hit the key for haha's. It started right up and ran for fifteen minutes. All of a sudden it stopped running and now it won't start again. The carb has plenty of fuel, no spark. Don't know what to do. I assume I have a loose connection. Help!!!
 
On a hunch I went out and pressed the button on the lanyard a few times and the boat started right up. Do you think I have an intermittent issues or have I found the problem, bad lanyard switch?
 
In a marine environment, ALL electrical switches that aren't sealed ( which is all of them I've ever seen!) will eventually get some corrosion/oxidation on the contacts. Often repeated cycling will restore them to life... at least for a while. Replacing this switch will be cheap insurance. NOW, if it was my boat (I'm an extremest in pursuing "frugality") I'd carry a short jumper wire with alligator clips to jumper out the switch in an emergency should the switch get the "vapors" again. Then again, carrying such a jumper on board all the time is a good "get me home" widget suitable for use in many places in the electrical system.

As I've posted previously... whenever you find a funky part, replace it, even if you don't see how that part is causing the problem. This is NOT the same as saying replace stuff willy-nilly (mmm... wonder what the etymology of that term is).
 
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Re: 2001 Volvo Penta GL 5.0 won't start Help!

Problem returned. Ran it today and it died after running smoothly for ten minutes. Trying to isolate the problem. I was asked before if the tach was moving and obviously when it's sparking I am but the tach isn't moving now. I'm sure indicating no spark. What should my next diagnostic step be? I'm ready to start disconnecting and reconnecting wires. My thought is it may be the lanyard and because it's sealed I don't know how to test considering cutting the 2 wires and connecting effectively disconnecting the switch. Any thoughts?
 
Just checked and I'm getting 12v at the coil on the meter. Put the positive lead on the positive side of the coil and the negative on a bolt and it measured 12.5 on the meter with the key in the on position. Does this mean the lanyard and ignition switch are ok? What next?
 
Just some random thought that pop into my mind when i think of pausable causes.

get an inline spark tester and see if it is firing, then check for corroded wires, faulty plugs, etc. Relay plug. Worn cap and rotor maybe. S wire off the ignition though that would affect the starter cranking. Screwy lanyard switch.
 
It's def not sparking. Replaced the coil and now I'm getting 12v of power at the positive terminal of the coil with the key in the on position and when I the key I'm getting 10.5 v of power. Not sure what else to do. Coil isn't firing.
 
make sure battery is properly charged, not sure if that voltage drop is in the right range or not. Could be faulty new coil also. Make sure u have correct ohm resistant coil, pull cap and rotor out and see maybe faulty electronic ignition modual. Being a 2001 doesnt this use coil packs, or does it have distrib cap and rotor setup?
 
Battery energizes coil. Breakers / solid state device causes primary windings to collapse thus energizing the secondary causing the secondary windings to fire up to 10,000 volts to the distributer which sends it to the spark plugs etc.

Soo since the coil isnt firing, look into the elctronic ignition componets, solid state device, ignition box if equpted. Something is preventing the the colapsing of the primary windings.

not sure how the safety switch is involved if it just cuts flow of power to the coil or if it interfers the electronic ignition some wire tracing might be needed. Something is obviously preventing the coil from firing.

This is where an inline spark dector comes in handy if all this and it sparks at the plugs then yor looking into a fuel issues
 
Just run a jumper (for test purposes) from the + of the battery to the + of the coil, then try to start the engine. But remember tha if the engine starts you will have to remove the jumper, or the engine will NOT stop.
 
But I have already determined that I have power at the positive side of the coil. 12+ volt when the key is in the on position and 10+ volts when the motor is cranking over.
 
Then, your next step is the electronic ignition module (or points if it is an old style distributor), the rotor, the cap and the ignition lead between the cap and the coil.
 
Cggx205 said:
Would this prevent the spark from the coil wire? I don't get any spark from the coil wire.
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Yes faulty ignition components would prevent the field from collapsing in the coil winding, back in the points days you could burn ur points leaving the ignition on.

Coils typically dont spark per-say they send up to 100,000 volts from it to the center of the distributer and depending what cylinder the rotor is approaching the rotor then arcs it to that particular wire (why our caps and rotors wear down) which then travels to the spark plug which then arcs it in the plugs electrode causing a firing (why timing is important on these)

With ignition components not working in your cause either a solid state device in the distributer or an ignition box mounted would prevent the coil from collapsing, thus not causing the coil wire to spark which im assuming ur grounding on the engine to watch for spark.

In a situation like this a spark tester is nice cause it contains the spark inside a box versus the possibility of some stray gas fumes igniting, plus its a longer gap and brighter spark then what you would see on a engine block in day light. Habor freight has them for less then 10 bucks.
 
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Just checked the air gap on the distributor and the manual says it should be between .008-.010 and it's more like .020. I've never removed the distributor so I'm not sure how that could happen. Could this be contributing to my problem?
 
Cggx205 said:
Just checked the air gap on the distributor and the manual says it should be between .008-.010 and it's more like .020. I've never removed the distributor so I'm not sure how that could happen. Could this be contributing to my problem?
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It's probably not helping.....
 
I guess my question is would this cause an intermittent problem? Going to the hardware store now to get a really small screwdriver adn then give this a shot. Hopefully before the family cookout!
 
I will expand my answer. Your engine had a breakerless inductive distributor (BID). Basically, a wheel with 8 teeth rotates at 1/2 the speed as the crankshaft, and whenever one of these teeth passes in front of a sensor coil, it triggers an impulse which makes a transistor becoming conductive and causes the primary side of the coil to become energized, which in exchange creates a high-voltage surge in the secondary side that is diverted to one of the spark plugs via the distributor and ignition wire. Therefore, if the gap between the sensor coil and the wheel tooth is too big, the coil may not detect the tooth and no signal will be generated (which means no spark).

I would start by resetting the air gap to the manufacturer's specifications, then take it from there.
 
Regapped it to the correct amount and still no spark. The only thing I can think of that's left is the ignition module. Is this a possible cause? Would that be an intermittent issue? How can I diagnose?
 
Have you checked the wiring between the coil and the distributor? Are the wires going to the correct posts in the coil? While the ignition sensor module could fail, it is not a common occurrence. And when the module fails, it fails. It is normally not intermittent.
 
What else could it be? I replaced the original coil because of this problem last weekend and it ran yesterday and a couple days during the week for about ten minutes at a time. Assuming because of that the wiring to the coil is correct.
 
If it is running for a few minutes at the time, then you probably have a wiring problem somewhere.

Regarding the distributor, I recall that the early ones had a purple wire going to the + of the coil and a black one going to the -. Is that they way yours is wired?

I would start by hotwiring the + of the coil and attempting to start. If the engine does not start, then I would look at the rotor and cap (have you replaced them?). And if still no luck, you may want to take your distributor for testing to a specialized shop.
 
Ground problem? It can't be a Cap and rotor if I don't get any spark out of the coil, right? My coil has two purples and two grounds running to thw + and - terminals.
 
Your coil has two purples (one coming from the ignition key and the other one from the distributor electronic module) and two wires connected to the (-): one goes to the distributor module (black) and another one to the tachometer (usually grey). There should not be a wire going directly to ground from the - of the coil.
 
Correct. There is two purple wires at the positive side, one from the distributor and one from the ignition 12.5v and also two greys - one from the distributor and one to the tach. So if I have power (12.5V) to the positive side then I don't know what else to do but replace the ignition module. Wish I could confirm that was the problem. Don't beleive any Marinas are open today.
 
Do you have 12V+ at the coil while cranking? If yes, and if the coil works, then the distributor is definitely the next suspect. I just have a hard time thinking that you have gone through two modules in a matter of days, as those things don't get destroyed so easily.

Do you have the Seloc manual? It describes in page 10-46 how to troubleshoot the distributor and the coil.
 
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