TOPIC: Control wires rotted.

I have a 73 Merc 50hp with iffy wiring in the control box.Had it apart and tried taping some of them back together.Anyway It will turn over,not start and the electric choke does not work [jump solenoid and it works] I believe whatever wire controls the hot wire for the ignition is shot.Could also be the neutral saftey switch shorted out?Fired up at the shop with jumper wires.
So I have a dash key switch that I am thinking about.Use that for hot ign and the start circuit for the choke.This would leave me with two keys needed to start.I am not going to buy a used set of controls and run into the same thing down the road.Also some of the control box switches seem to be plastic encapsulated which would make it hard to rewire.I do not care about cosmetics as this is the kids waterfowl boat.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

Why don't you simply cut back the wires until they look better, strip off a bit of the insulation, scrape the wires with the edge of a box-cutter until they are cleaner, and resolder them to the ignition switch.
Use a solder gun rather than a torch to do this soldering and you won't melt the plastic components of the ingition switch.
Same thing with the choke button wires, but while the choke button is removed from the control box you can remove the rubber button from the piece of fiber circuit board and clean the bell shaped brass contact on the underside of the rubber button part and the two brass contacts on the fiber ciruit board and then re-assemble.
Just remember to take a good long look at just how the original wires are tucked and twisted around in the corner of the control box so that when you go to put the choke button, ignition switch, & neutral safety switch back in the box everything will fit.
On the stiff somewhat brittle insulation and wire, applying some heat from a heat gun or hair dryer will soften the stiff old insulation enough to allow you to bend and move the wires around without the insulation turning to dust.
Then paint all the questionable spots and new solder joints up good with liquid tape and she'll be good to go for another 10 years.
It will save you from doing a lot of haywiring if you take a break, breathe deep, and dive in.

Thom

I had this apart over the winter and it seems to me that some of the wires went into a rubber encapsulated housing and they were rotted up to that point. Was not sure if it was possible to pry those different housings apart and rewire. I will take another look to refresh my memory this weekend and report back,thanks.The neutral saftey switch seemed to be in good shape,except for the wires,any chance of that causing the no-electric to ign.syndrome? If that switch is not getting juice will it negate the ign circuit,hence the no spark?

rewire to a switch in the dash only 1 key

The Neutral Safety Switch just interrupts the yellow wire that activates the starter's solenoid.
Depending on which ignition system you have you may or may not need 12v to run the engine. Even if the ignition has a switchbox it might not need 12v.
It does need 12v to work the starter and the electric choke though.
Can you post a picture of the distributor so we can see if it is a magneto, Lightning Energizer (solid state magnetyo with a switchbox) or a CDI (Thunderbolt) system?
Thom

I had Tim Calms go over it. Started up at his shop in March,with his wiring harness.I have not been able to check spark yet, but I figure since the choke does not work through the controls that there is 12v needed to energize the system as well, since it wont even give a sputter when turning over,with or without choke manually engaged.I do have the official Mercury manual and am not able to post pics. It is a 1973 and appears to be the ThunderBolt system from what I can interpert looking at the manual.
The problem with just the one ign switch is it will not let me choke it without hooking up a aux. switch for that function.