mid 70s mercury inline 6 cylinder distributor and switchbox

[dp50321]

I could use some help if I could get some please. I have a mid 70s merc with a distributor and a switchbox. what I have going on it does not want to have spark most of the time. I can get spark at the coil with the engine out of the water and it will even run with the ear muffs on. but when I put it in the water it will not start sprark is real weak. and it is weird really weird as soon as you turn the key on it sparks even without the engine cranking at all. In fact I had it running and it started even when I just turned the key on. It also backfires really load if you turn the key off and then turn it on. It won't start most of the time and then it might just decide to start and just work just fine. It has a new wiring harness on the engine side but the trigger is old and the switch box is old. I have power to the white and the red wires even when I don't have spark. I did have to replace the ignition coil because it was arcing between the coil and the engine block through the side of the coil. I am going to try to replace the switchbox because I have 3 of them have not done that yet but that is my next step and cut the rubber tube off of the trigger wire and make sure that they are not shorted together . Any help would be great thank you

 

[dp50321]

pretty sure it is the trigger i jumped the bottom two wires on the trigger side of the switchbox and then grounded the top black terminal and every time that i grounded it the coil would produce great spark. i was wondering if there is anyway to clean the trigger aka distributor or do i have to get a new one

 

[fastjeff]

Hard to repair the trigger. Better look for another one.

Jeff