TOPIC: 1962 Gear Shift Merc 700

Got this a few days ago, No spark, duel points is a worry, first serious repair for me with a six pack. Looking for a book on this motor also.

This is the boat . Mariner with a Montgomery wards sea king trailer

get the 65 and prior manual from oldmercs.com it is a mercury manual the best. comes on ebay used sometimes. be carefull with the rotor it takes a special tool to remove, i hav 2 extra good used rotors if you break one. i also have 2 resistors and a nos cam for the distributer.

Working with points and ditributers is my biggest fear .. i would gladly pay someone to do what ever is needed , rather than destroy it myself lol.But i will look into the 1965& prior manual .

EBAY For The Win !

Perhaps Neil Will find this thread lol . Anyone know if the merc 700 gear shift engine will crank and run with out a battery and without the control box hooked to it . My 62 merc 500 will run with nothing attached to it , but the 700 / 6 cylinder is a lot different. I don't have the key that goes to the control box. So using a direct link to a battery on the starter will turn the engine ( without the control box hooked up ) But will it allow the engine to fire and run ... That is the question .And .. what to do about the key switch ?

no it wont. it has a battery ignition.not a magneto

I saved some cash on the manual. In case you need something quick I paid for a pdf download from service manual vault . com. It was like 5 bucks. Pretty sure this is the same og manual. Its over 600 pages !

Oh Boy ! I'm gunna be up a creek with out a paddle on this one. OK let me give a run down of what i have destroyed so far .... lol I'm crying inside.. I don't have a key to the original switch in the control box. So i cut the wiring which was crumbling apart anyway, i sanded the battery cables and hooked them up .The White wire is hot, orange is the starter , red is the alternator,blue is the choke power.Black is ground. I hooked the red and white to a toggle switch, for power on / off and hooked a momentary push button between
the White and Orange wires. So toggle switch powers on , push button cranks the engine over.I have NO Idea of what to do with the Black Wire , other than go back to the battery Ground.
i replaced the wires that showed signs of crumbled coatings and oxidized / green wire . Then i placed a multi-tester at various places to get electric readings.The starter cylinoid reads fine all the way around. The Brown and The White wires coming from the coils to the port side of the engine block ( where the Tilt-Kill switch used to be ) show voltage only when the engine is turning over.I did not attempt to remove any part of the distributor, in any manner .There is No fire at any spark plug wire. So my BIGGEST Fear is The two sets of points are dirty, the rotor bug is dirty, the condenser are shot,and i am lost at sea lol. Anyway i'm having a ball learning about the in-line 6.

I applaud you for jumping into that 700. I have the same motor and luv it. Ron

I would start buy turning the igniton on and test for voltage at both coils. The + connection to your red lead of volt meter and black lead to any metalic motor part for ground (assuming you have the battery ground to motor). Meter should show 12 volts? If that tests ohecks I would remove all the wires to coils one by one to clean and remove any oxidation with fine emory cloth. I would also remove the distributor cap and spray WD-40 on the points area and in the cap then wipe clean with a lint free cloth then check the point contacts for any sign of a build up on the point contact surface and if so remove any flaw with maybe a very small flat file or emory cloth held on one side of small screw driver. You can test the condensers with a needle multimeter (search Condenser testing, also coil testing). If still no spark might try testing the coils but not likely both would be bad i'm thinking so should get a spark to 3 plugs at least? Someone correct me if I screwed up here, I wouldn't (would NOT)try any adjustment on points at this point as long as you can rotate flywheel and see points open and close when the caps off. Make sure the points move freely, the WD should free any sticking...
I was given a motor, might have been a chain saw and the points were so gummed up on its pivit it wouldn't close quickly, Ya don't see that very often though ? Good Luck!

TOTALLY AWESOME INFO ... Thanks G3Bill ! Will post more later tonight, after I get through spraying the White paint onto the Traveler If i am lucky i will get some photo's and update the restoration thread !

AHH WOOT WOOT ! ! ! No power at either coil. Hooked a jumper from the battery to a toggle switch . then to each positive post on the coils .. Grabbed my handy dandy siphon hose and my one quart oil / 3 gallon gas mix jug ... shot a fast breath of fuel mix into the 3 carbs , grabbed the magic push to start button from my jubilee tractor and instantly the old merc fired up . The neighbors ( six miles away ) won't have mosquitoes for the rest of the year, smoke is still lingering outside ! lol And I gave $ 100. for the whole Setup ! This boat came from the same lot of boats in the boats , boats & more boats forum.... Incredible Find !!

AHH WOOT WOOT ! ! !

Thats great, thought it mite take longer to figure out. Glad you had no problems with distributor. Now you should figure why it wont work all hooked up, might just be bad contacts like I said, clean every one imo and if theres any crimp-on wire connectors it would be wise to replace and solder them, you can sometimes open them up and clean and recrimp then solder if ya dont have a connector handy. For bad wires you can splice in wires were the bad ones are but make sure to slide in heat shrink tube to slide over the soldered connection. I always use one shrink tube that will just fit and after thats shrinked on, then a larger and longer one over that, makes for a good barrier. You could put a bit of silicone over the soldered splice first and let it dry, might be better for keeping water out. Sounds like you need to take the remote apart and get a switch with keys then you'll be a real boater with a Mighty Merc tower of Power,lol Would lov to see pics. hard for me to post cause of pic size but I have a total disaster 700 , not sure I'll ever fix it but hope to get my Mark78 going one day...

ps, instead of silicone I like that electrial liquid tape or sealer but its a bit pricey if only doing a few connections. It just flows better but anything will work I suppose. I had a salt water boat and lots of the connections were bad from wire being corroded by wicking water into the wire insulation 4" up to 2 feet which had to be replaced.

G3Bill ... This is my 6 pack , Tower of Power , and the Mariner Boat... i Think i am going to redo the boat , someday, and yes i am going to change the color from the bronze gelcoat ,,, to a shade of pink , just like the faded color it is now LOL !

Glad to hear you got the old girl running DIB, congrats! As you now know there are plenty of the gang here familiar with that motor, also a good idea to study that manual whenever you have time IMHO. (I owned one a while back, it was my first Glassic outboard! Loved it, wish I wouldn't have let her go.) Great motors, just a few "tricks" to working on them. Enjoy!

Yes Mark that Manual is great, the Merc Bible!

Not too sure about the flamingo pink , people might wonder which bar you patronize,lol I do like the lines, nice boat...

G3Bill .. LOL I frequent the sand bar lol . I would drink a river of rain, or other water as opposed to a single drop of alcohol .But my GF likes the pinkish color of the Mariner , So ... what can i say lol !
OH ! by the way .. i have searched for control cables for these Control boxes,without luck .. Any hints to where to look next ?

DlB68 wrote:

G3Bill .. LOL I frequent the sand bar lol . I would drink a river of rain, or other water as opposed to a single drop of alcohol .But my GF likes the pinkish color of the Mariner , So ... what can i say lol !
OH ! by the way .. i have searched for control cables for these Control boxes,without luck .. Any hints to where to look next ?

I would start a new thread asking about the cables. I know someone will have them but measure so ya dont get them too short. I'd include the pics you took.
My remote is like the white teardrop one but mounted lower. Have a piece of ply up under the gunwale to floor its mounted to. The ply also helps support the deck at end of windshield where they like to crack.

Someone hit my green Karma, I hate odd numbers ADDED; Thanks, I needed that!

call mr about the cables.1 914 310 7086

Now ... what to do , what to do ... I have washed rubbed scrubbed and wore my fingers out...Should I paint the indents black, or leave it polished like it is ... Lord knows I don't want to spend another week rubbing on this !

Finaly, Edit is posted ... Woot Woot !

Paint them black. It's good for Karma. Skip.

Mine must be diff year, nice cond. Ha! Its a freebee but maybe they should have paid me to take it?

OMG ! ! ! the word is DROOL !

LOL Sorry Skip , i saw G3Bills 700 and forgot to say .. I agree with ya !