Re: Questions from the Darkside Mercury 9.8 1972

[20mercman]

There was just a post on Johns about using "Tinned Marine Wire" for replacement wire. Much more reasonable than using OEM harness that can have poor insulation even sitting on a shelf. These are "Phase Maker" point systems, and are really not bad. The issues is often a bad insulator on the lead from the breaker points to the coils. This system uses a high voltage to and a capacitor to charge the primary windings of the ignition coil. The path to ground for the primary circuit is through the kill switch. Make sure that you have a good ground via the kill switch. This is also a weak point in the system. Using the kill switch will cause high voltage looking for a path to ground. This will cause carbon tracking on the insulators I was talking about. Many people urge operators with these systems to avoid using the kill switch and use a combination of choke/low throttle speed. In any case, using the kill switch at high RPM can cause failure of the insulators. I have several motors with this system, and I have no reservations in using them, they start and perform well, just need to know the limits of this system.

Steve