not starting after winter lay up

[CajunSpike]

I just bought a boat with a non running atomic 4 for $2000. Turns out besides a clogged up carburetor, it had a weak spark.

The cause of the weak spark was a that the points were badly misadjusted.

Points gap as way too far open for spark to build up enough to fire correctly.

New carb.
Adjusted points.

Motor runs sweet.

[ronsue42c@gmail.com]

Who says miracles don't happen. Down loaded the tech guide for Pertronix from Ram41662 and read about checking to see if tach wire is grounding neg. terminal of coil . That's what was going on!
Last winter when I moved our tach (installed a depth sounder)
I must have crossed some wires, the neg wire to the coil was grounding the system. Removed that wire and our A4 fired up to her sweet, smooth self.
I just want to give out a great big THANK YOU !! The response we got was great and so helpful.
My wife Susan and I think we should play hooky tomorrow and go for a boat ride.

[Ram41662]

Glad I was of some use....now go have some fun!

[ronsue42c@gmail.com]

So, while removing tach (cuz it never worked), I accidentally touched neg. wire to pos. wire and fried the 2 ground wires to oil & temp gauge. So they no longer work. Replaced with new gauges & wires, and still don't work. So what's next? sending units?

[Dave Neptune]

The gage leads are hot and not grounded. The ground is through the sendor.

What you need are fuses and a check of the ign wiring system.

Dave Neptune

[ndutton]

Why are we working on this stuff hot? Accidents happen.

[Joe Miller]

#19

check that sending unit matches the gauge, just a thought.

Joe

[joe_db]

Standard gauges are designed for 240-33 ohm sending units. 240 ohms is the low end of the range. It is entirely possible to have a 240 ohm sender, a 240 ohm gauge, and still be off. One example would be a 100 PSI sender on an 80 PSI gauge.
Another source of error can be a dual station sender with one gauge or vice versa.

[ronsue42c@gmail.com]

Replaced Faria guage with Faria guage - but maybe different sending unit?
Looking into that now...

[JOHN COOKSON]

The gage leads are hot and not grounded. The ground is through the sendor.
What you need are fuses and a check of the ign wiring system.
Dave Neptune

+1 on this.
The ground on the gauge is for lighting. It has nothing to do with the sending unit.
Can you read "12" volts at the gauges?

TRUE GRIT