so.. after dropping in my mallory dual points dist. ( had to move the oil pump rod about 1/8 of an inch to get everything lines up to the first cylinder on the compression stroke.) i got the engine to run for about two minutes a few days ago.

so i stoped and went to pick up a timing light. now it wont start.

it will turn on for about as long as i hold the key in the start position, once it fires up and i release the key to the on position it dies.

its still getting fuel as the bowls are not empty after

obnoxious told me to look at the ignition coil and so i put a volt meter on it

heres what i did and what happened.

 put the volt meter to the ignition coil. reads nothing at the "on" position

had my brother turn the engine over and it jumps up to about 6 volts as its turning, then goes down to low fives when he releases it back to the on position. tried this a few more times and same thing everytime.

so im assuming the ignition coil is bad.

i looked at some of the coils on the summit and jegs websites, mallory makes some. but i would like some feed back, if i am going to replace it, what i should look for

1983 chevy 454 mallory dual points .. thanks

Sounds like you have the ign hot wire put on the wrong post on solonoid.

Ignition switch....

Ray

i would check the 12v source power to the coil. If the motor will run when you have the key to the start position and then it shuts off when the key is returned to the on position, this to me sounds like a source problem.

The Beav

whats the source? as in the battery? the battery was at 12.7volts before i started this little test

i'll look into the wiring of the solonoid, i dont think its wrong but i'll definetly look into it.

btw anyone have a basic wiring diagram for a boat like this?

yes there is a ballast, im going to check that, how many ohms should it be reading?

i dont think the ignition is bad but i suppose i could look into it.

note* i had the wiring gone through a few years ago and everything was fixed. i had a loose wires and it was burning out my fuses, but it should have been taken care of.

so.. after dropping in my mallory dual points dist. ( had to move the oil pump rod about 1/8 of an inch to get everything lines up to the first cylinder on the compression stroke.) i got the engine to run for about two minutes a few days ago.

so i stoped and went to pick up a timing light. now it wont start.

it will turn on for about as long as i hold the key in the start position, once it fires up and i release the key to the on position it dies.

its still getting fuel as the bowls are not empty after

obnoxious told me to look at the ignition coil and so i put a volt meter on it

heres what i did and what happened.

 put the volt meter to the ignition coil. reads nothing at the "on" position

had my brother turn the engine over and it jumps up to about 6 volts as its turning, then goes down to low fives when he releases it back to the on position. tried this a few more times and same thing everytime.

so im assuming the ignition coil is bad.

i looked at some of the coils on the summit and jegs websites, mallory makes some. but i would like some feed back, if i am going to replace it, what i should look for

1983 chevy 454 mallory dual points .. thanks

OK, your statement here is slightly different than all the PM's you have sent.  If the keyswitch is in the "on" position, and you have zero volts at the coil, it comes back to the three things I previously mentioned to you.  If you read all of the above posts, they all recommend the same things I told you in PM's. 

You may have a bad ignition switch

You may have a bad ballast resistor

You may have some other wiring problem.

I would not worry so much about how many ohms the ballast resistor is, but does it show continuity?   Put the meter on a low range resistance setting and see if you get some needle deflection.  As I had told you before, you will need to remove the wire from one side of the resistor to make that test.

Also, as I said previously, and is indicated above,, you can jumper 12 volts directly to the coil to see if it runs, but do it in a way that you can pull the wire to kill the engine.

i unhooked the ballast resistor on one side and put the meter down to the 200 ohms setting, and when i make the connection, it goes from about 1500 and quickly drops down to 40ohms then slowly makes its way just below 30. it doesnt want to stay at one certain resistence level.

i guess next is to try and skip the ignition switch. im going to look into it right now and see whats going on in there. thanks

i unhooked the ballast resistor on one side and put the meter down to the 200 ohms setting, and when i make the connection, it goes from about 1500 and quickly drops down to 40ohms then slowly makes its way just below 30. it doesnt want to stay at one certain resistence level.

i guess next is to try and skip the ignition switch. im going to look into it right now and see whats going on in there. thanks

Right,, the fact that it was getting voltage through the resistor probably eliminates that as being the problem, unless vibration of the engine running makes the broken resistor wire separate.  You can take the wire from one side of the resistor and attach it to the other side, thereby connecting the two wires and bypassing the resistor to test it out. 

Back to what you said above about the key being turned on and no voltage at the coil until the key is turned to the "start" position.  That's probably where the problem lies,, if you wanted to trace the wire from the coil to the ignition switch and make sure there are no splices or breaks, you can use the meter to check voltage at the terminal on the switch, and any other connections in between (terminal strip on a jet boat maybe?)

$22.99 from CP PErformance. Seems to me I got one for around $15 bucks from Dry Dock Marine here in PHX, Tom or Jim can probably get one right quick and match the price.

Put the meter away............

Ray