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1990 thunderbolt ignition

N

n25sa

New member
I have a 1990 Sea ray with twin 4.3 w/ the thunderbolt ignition. One motor went completely dead while on the water. I've narrowed it down to a bad modulet that sits on the exhaust riser. Looking on ebay I see these on sale at many different prices. Also I see some on the riser plate and some not Some say there for the distributor mount. My question is will the distributor mount work for the riser mount They all have different # at first but end with V6-14.

Thanks
 
Short answer is yes they are interchangable.

Longer answer is how to mount a dist mounted to the manifold?

The manifold mount I believe has a longer wire harness to connect to the main harness.

If you can make it fit simply connect the wire colors and you should be good.

MAKE SURE YOU GET A 100% WARRENTY AS FAR AS IT WORKS RIGHT AWAY.

I have purchased some ignition parts (used) and they were nonfunctional and fortunatly the seller took them abck and credited my money!!

Also becareful you get the correct one for TB IV or TB V TB V comes in two flavors, one with a knock sensor and one without the knock sensor.

I dont believe the kncok and no knock sensor modules are interchangable........

Simply look on this site for part number differnece between the three.....TB IV, TB V without knock sensor and TB V with knock sensor.
 
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Interchanging would be easy, assuming the part I got was for the dist. it was not mounted on the manifold plate. The original one was riveted on the plate. I just drilled it out and attached the other with screws the manifold plate. Wiring was not a problem as they both had the same plug.

I installed the new (used) one yesterday and she fired right up. Ran about 2-3 minutes and died. That's the same thing the old one did but longer. I'm now I thinking I fixed the wrong problem. it seems to be heat related. Once it warms up goes completely dead until it cools down.

I replaced the sensor last year along w/ plugs, wires, cap and rotor. She had run fine until in the keys, quite cold turkey had to limp in on one motor 10 miles. With two motors I've been switching parts to find out what's bad. Thought I had it narrowed down to the Ignition module but now not so sure.

I was just concerned I might have hooked up a wrong ign. sensor and burned something else up? Any guess what would heat related in the thunderbolt system?
 
Tests for Thunderbolt Ignition:


Tests for Thunderbolt Ignition:
W/ignition key on AND BILGE WELL VENTILATED OF GAS FUMES!!!

#1 - Connect your voltmeter neg. lead to the engine ground and pos. lead to the white/red wire terminal at the dist. It should read 12 volts.

#2 - If 12 volts is present remove the coil wire from the distributor cap and connect it to a spark gap tester to ground.

Remove the white/green lead from the dist. terminal. Turn the ign. key to on and strike the white/green lead to ground. If there is spark, replace the ignition sensor in the dist.

#3 - If there is no spark, substitute a new coil and repeat test

#2. Now if you get spark, install a new coil. NO SPARK, replace ign. amp.

#4 - In #2, if there is No voltage present, disconnect the white/red wire and check it again for 12 volts. If 12 volts is present, replace the ignition sensor inside the dist. cap. If no 12 volts present w/it disconnected--ignition timing module (amplifier) is shot and must be replaced.
 
Thanks for the test sheet, seems the ignition sensor is bad and not the ignition module. Bummer just replaced it Last year wit new one. Any word if they have been failing too quickly?? Guess I'll buy a backup as I have twins and replaced the other one at the same time. it might be ready to time out also.
 
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