1978 mercury 500 thunderbolt

[GuyFlor]

I bought an abandoned boat last year that has this engine on it and I’ve brought it to running condition, now my issue is that while having to move the ignition switch to its housing and moving some wires around to be able to close it properly I found that suddenly I don’t have spark, I diagnosed the issue being in the orange wire connected to the switch panel. I disconnected it and now the engine runs perfectly only that I can shut the engine off without disconnecting the fuel line.

 

[haventaclue]

The orange wire is the kill circuit on this motor. Disconnect the mercury tilt switch and see if that's the problem.

 

[GuyFlor]

The orange wire is the kill circuit on this motor. Disconnect the mercury tilt switch and see if that's the problem.

The mercury tilt switch isn’t connected and the problem is still there