'86 Silver, 350 GM Electronic Ignition

I picked up another project (as described in Gen. Disc.), and had it out for a ride the other night.  All went well until it didn't.  Cruising at speed, idling around, just enjoying the first ride.  Anyway, idling along, it suddenly died...like you shut it off.  No sputtering or anything, just died.  I have fuel & air, no spark.  It has 12v to the ignition module, which happens to be an Accel Super Coil, # 140003.  I was thinking to just replace the cap, rotor, and the same Accel, but a fellow S/N Bud said I should be sure the P/O didn't install a non marine type ignition.

So...any thoughts on what I have or what I should go with?  The boat has only 504 hours on it and was running perfect at all speeds, top speed of 43  MPH.  Other than our Canadian fog, it was a beautiful evening to be out, even the tow back by friends was as good as it gets.  Just another adventure.

Thanks...

BTW: what do you recommend for spark plugs?

Thanks again...

With what you've written for part numbers, combined with the quote above, I figure your fellow SN bud is pretty smart.

I'll guess that you have an Accel or some other companies version of the GM HEI distributor that got put in some time over the years.

It's probably got a vacuum advance cannister hanging off of it..............that tells ya' that it's not a marine distributor.  I hope I'm wrong 

If that's the case, replacing it with a marine version of the HEI distributor would be the safe, smart thing to do.

Maybe you have a marine HEI with some Accel stuff in place of the original parts.

If you know how to post pictures here, now's the time to post a few of the distributor from different angles showing any labels/tags on the housing itself.

If you don't know how, read the thread about posting pictures in the link below. Read the last post dated 2/7/23 for posting pictures with a free IMGBB account.

Or read your PM's and you'll find a phone number that you could text the pictures to and an e mail address that you could send them to 

If you want to figure out what your problem is, do a google search for "troubleshooting a GM HEI ignition system" and you can figure out if you have a bad module or bad coil or what your problem is.

If you end up needing a marine HEI distributor, Jonny Quest is the unpaid, totally biased spokesman for DUI distributors here on CCF and another place or 2 also. We'll wait for his sales pitch.

No vent screens ............... and .a pretty we'll just say "not too good job" of getting rid of the vacuum advance and blocking off the hole where it used to go through.

It may work just fine after you fix the no spark issue, but it leaves you more vulnerable to an explosion in the case of a gas leak meeting the spark in the distributor

They meet under the cap then you have the big bang that could be avoided with a marine distributor 

In the marine version, there's a little pop that has it's energy dissipated by the brass vent screen(s)

Same principle as an old coal miner's lantern

I'm officially putting out a request for Jonny  Quest.  I'd like to talk to you about my problem.  It looks like the best thing to do is to do it right and be done with it.  Do you sell the DUI's?  I did a search and found them, rather buy "locally" if I can.  Thanks...

You can ignore any claims of huge power and economy increases in their advertising.

They come from that big country on the other side of the Pacific.

You could do some research on A Team Performance if you're interested

I have no experience with this distributor, just thought I'd mention that it's out there

I cut and pasted this quote from your other thread, just so somebody reading this would know what you did.

Glad it worked out 

JamoJones wrote: Hi Keno, Just wanted to do a follow up on my boat.  I did purchase and install the knock off from the link you provided above.  We've been up north at our family camp for the last two weeks and did the repairs up there.  All is good, ran almost10 flawless hours with the C-KO.  I do believe I will cancel the JEGS order...