No spark from Coil

[Kevin on Keuka]

I hope someone has a suggestion: i have a 1987 TS6M which has run great until recently. It ran very poorly (sluggish and skipping) last time i took it out and now will not start at all. I pulled the cable off the distributor cap to see if there was spark but no luck. Replaced the coil and the rotar. Still no fire. Starter whirls fine, batteries are fine. I'm at a loss and need to get it out of the hoist for the winter!

[OUI]

Pull the cap and the rotor, and check to see if you points are clean and gapped correctly. Then turn on the ignition and open and close the points to see if you get a spark on contact. If all that is a positive, then you need a new coil.

[Memmer99]

Take a look at your ballast resistor too. If it's brown replace it. I think it's about 10 bucks. The ballast resistor is located under the black plastic housing where the block and tranny mount together.

[DAFF]

Also check for 12 volts at the coil when the key is in the run position. Have seen ignition switches go bad from time to time...

[Kevin on Keuka]

Thanks for the suggestions! I did replace the rotar but didn't check the points. I'll try that this weekend.

[Kevin on Keuka]

Is the ballast resistor the .75" x .75" x 3" (approx.) piece next to the circuit breaker button under the black cover? If so, this is white still and doesn't appear damaged. Could that 40 amp circuit breaker button go bad and cause this? Again, no evidence of failure but i don't know how to test it.

[OUI]

The ballast resistor is right next to the circuit breaker, it's made of porcelain. If the breaker is bad, you won't get power to anything on the boat.