Marine: Boating, Sailing, PWC, GPS and Navigation - 1988 Merc I/O 260 hp timing with thunderbolt

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paul59
08-19-08, 03:56 PM
I have a boat with the 1988 Mercruiser I/O 350ci, 260 hp. I have owned the boat for 18 years and it is in very good condition. It has always been garage kept.

I am interested in knowing if I need to place this in base mode to time it and if so, how to do it. I do not see a purple wire with a white stripe as described in some of the forums. The boat does have the thunderbolt ignition.

The engine seems to run well except for it wanting to die if shifted to neutral and at other times wanting to continue running once turned off.

Can someone direct me to literature on how to time it and/or give me suggestions per the symptoms and possible solutions.

Many Thanks

samuari
08-20-08, 07:19 PM
You should be able to just set timing at 10 degrees at idle, If you haven't check your cap and rotor and spark plugs. As far as dieing when it goes into neutral it might need the shift cable adjusted as it has a modual that kills the spark to unload the pressure on the drive. I would do a complete tune up first
paul59
08-26-08, 11:05 AM
Over the weekend, I did replace the lower end shift cable and it is working fine.

Thanks for the input.

Paul