Electronic Conversion

[NAUTI84]

Anyone dumped the old points/condenser and replaced them with a Electronic Conversion Kit?
I was thinking about it after having some starting trouble due to points last year.
Any comments Pro/Cons?

[shirazguru]

electronic conversion

I had my dealer. MD Boats, do the electronic ignition conversion on my 87 Dominique. We keep the boat at the lake and use it every other weekend. In the 3 years that I have owned the boat we have never had any issue of it not starting on the the first turn of the key. The boat is covered on a boat lift and the points corrode quickly under the hood with the abundant water vapor / condensation. It was well worth the minimal investment - I think it was under $120 installed.
The previous owner always had trouble starting the boat as he rarely used it and the points continually rusted. She has 281 total hours now and hopefully will last forever, especially given the price of a new one!
Good Luck.

[NAUTI84]

Shirazguru - I'm with you!
My old Nautique looks better every year, especially when I saw the thread on new Nautique pricing with prices in the 40-50's - Yikes!
I think corrosion was my problem too, since I wasn't using it much.
I was looking at the $120.00 conversition kit in Overton's, but didn't know if there were any downsides.

[NCH2oSki]

No downsides, do it!

[882001]

www.vintageperformance.com

[uncle-buck]

What's the consensus on which conversion kit to buy? It looks like the kits sold by Skidim, Pertronix, and Aqua Power are all different. What do the gurus on this forum recommend?

[GC]

If you are dealing with a Prestolite distributor then use the kit from DIM, otherwise either one of the others are about the same.

[uncle-buck]

Great. Thanks.

[pmt2234]

I put the $100 kit on my 84 nautique a few years ago. The improvement in starting and idling was enough for my mechanicaly uninclined wife to notice.

Haven't messed with it since. I did it so I wouldn't have to mess with the points, and was pleasantly surpirsed by the starting and idling improvements.

[Laptom]

Installed a complete new distributor (spelling?) with electronic ignition (thanks SkiDim). It works flawless. Boat always starting the first time and never, ever have to check the points (gap)... We leave the boat 24/7 in the water and it works great!

[NAUTI84]

I bought the conversion kit from SKIDIM.
I've got it half installed. Up to the point of wiring it in.
Got ?'s for anyone that's done this:
* Purple wire to purple (Bat) side of coil & Black to grey wire side?
(even though orig. points wire went to grey side?)
* Directions talk about bypassing the resistor? anyone know how to do this? just contect the two wires going to resistor now?
* Do I need to replace original coil w/ a new prestolite 5-69? or will old one still work until I can order a new one?

I called SKIDIM but clopsed for weekend, so I sent them an email but probably won't here until after the long weekend. So much for getting her wet on the 4th!
Any answers would at least help me keep working on it over the weekend - Thanks!

[Rick]

When I did mine on my Chrysler 318 One wire went to each side of the coil. That was all. No reisitor Mine worked very well good luck

[Laptom]

We bypassed the resistor (by connecting the 2 wires indeed).
I think the original coil will work without a problem, but with a new coil (with a higher voltage because the electronic can have it now) it should be perform better (also fuel wise)..

Good luck with it.

[NAUTI84]

Thanks for the help guys!
I got home from N.H. about 7:00 today. (Skied off the Malibu - had a great time!) Was surprised to see an email & a answering machine message from Karen & Vince @ SKIDIM answerining the questions I had.
Same as Laptom said - connect the wires to bypass resistor & it would be Ok to use old coil. So that should get me going. (But I'll probably order the electronic coil before my vacation week at the end of the month.)
SKIDIM = GREAT SERVICE - I'd highly recommend them. :thumleft: