1979 Mercury 7.5 - No Spark

[Moving Violation]

Hi, I'm new here.
I bought it new in 1979 and gave it to my kids to use a year ago. A couple months ago I noticed it was laying inside the aluminum boat in the carport, which has a leaky roof. The boat had filled up with water and essentially sunk the motor inside. It had probably been underwater for a few days. I pulled it out, removed the spark plugs, drained it, squirted a lot of wd40 into the cylinders, pulled and pulled, and repeated with oil, until all the water was out.
I recently replaced the coils and spark plugs and attempted to start it...there is no spark. I hate to just start replacing parts as I noticed a new Switch Box costs over $250. Any ideas / help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Mike

 

[guyjg]

If you have a digital volt/ohmmeter you can check resistance of the components. The site below can take you thru each step. Most electronic components are sealed and should not have been affected by the water except the electrical connections may be wet. Are the kids still able to hear after you yelled at them?

http://issuu.com/cdielectronics/doc...t.xml&backgroundColor=000000&showFlipBtn=true

 

[Moving Violation]

Thanks guyjg and kimcrwbr1...I appreciate the advice and will attemt. As for yelling at the kid responsible (he's 27), he's past yelling at but knows dad is pissed. He bought the new coils. Thanks again...I may be back for more advice!

 

[fastjeff]

I have a brand new, two year gauranteed, switch box if you need it. Half price.

Jeff

 

[Moving Violation]

Thanks fastjeff, I'll keep that in mind. Still working on it. I took the flywheel off and inspected all of the wire connections...they all looked like new but I wire brushed all the grounds and connections anyway. I got a little side tracked and noticed how easy it would be to get the carb off...so I did and cleaned it out - it was a mess inside with water. Then I noticed the plastic venturi was broken (I likely did it with compressed air). I haven't tried to locate one online yet but not looking forward to it.