Reply To: 1970 4 HP, one cyl American Made Mercury

[David Stanton]

I just found on page 8-25 of the shop manual, it states in the capacitor/stator test table that the capacitor on the 1970-71 4 HP, 7.5 HP, 9.8 HP, and 20 HP motors is part of the stator

. So that verifies what I’m seeing – no external capacitor that can be replaced.
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I also learned the “reddish-rust” colored coils ( I assume this means the brown I have) are for the Thunderbolt ignition and the green coils are for the Phase-maker ignition. Reading the detailed description of how the “First generation Mercury CDI ignition works” that Crosbyman sent me in his first reply, in the system diagram on the 3rd page there is a small note that says: “Works with Orange, Red, or Green ignition coils, but not Black or Blue due to grounding differences”, so based on that, since the existing brown coil (or maybe that is the reddish-rust color mentioned in the shop manual) has the same grounding as the Orange, red, and green coils, I’ll assume I can use the green coil from my 1971 7.5 HP Parts motor. I’m going to try it!
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Sorry to get so wordy in these posts, (thanks for your patience) but I keep finding more tidbits as I dig through the manuals. I’ll let know in a day or two if the brown to green coil swap works!

Thanks again for all the input!
Dave

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