Ebay Switchboxes

[NoRdO]

Hey Folks,

I thought I'd share my findings after ordering a pair of china switch boxes off of ebay. I think I paid a total of around $46 shipped for the pair .

My initial thought when I ordered these is that I would keep them in my boat toolbox in case I needed to troubleshoot on the water. I'm assembling a kit with extra coils, stator, and trigger, plugs, tools, and etc... basically all of the electronics should I get stranded in the middle of nowhere and need to swap. It was never my plan to run these as a permanent solution.

Well I finally received them today and wanted to share my thoughts... Unfortunately, I don't think I will even be able to run these on my motor. If you read the CDI ignition troubleshooting guide for v6 mercurys, there is a section about checking the bias circuit of your switch boxes. Basically, you need to ohm test the bias (top left/ wht/blk) terminal to case ground (pic below). You want both boxes to ohm out in the same ballpark for the bias to be matched. If not, you risk having altered timing on one of the banks! I.E. you might set your timing at *24 BTDC for cylinder 1 on bank 1 but if your bias ratio is incorrect, you might wind up with significantly more or less timing on the other bank! Would sure suck to have 30* of timing on one of your banks! Say goodbye to mr. piston!

Well I checked both boxes and here is what I got...

1st box checked out ok at ~14K ohms which is in the ballpark of what is recommended in the CDI guide
2nd box checked out at a whopping ~114K ohms!!! 10 times the resistance of what CDI recommends.

See for yourselves...



Would you run these on your V6 Mercury???

Needless to say, they are going back to the vendor, I don't think I even want to exchange...

[Capt.Insane-o]

Smart man.

[rgsauger]

Cheap boxes are a fine way to roast a not-cheap motor

[NoRdO]

Cheap boxes are a fine way to roast a not-cheap motor

Yea, especially considering a bad mercury switchbox took out my last 2.4 200... I ohm'd those out... one was @14k ohm and the other was @12K ohm... burned #2... I'm not even going to bother sleeving it because #4 is 8ths out of round that would be 2 sleeves... unfortunately not economically viable to save that motor...

[rgsauger]

Got my block back from James Perry today!

[25two.stroke]

Yeah I've seen customers bring boxes into the shop and request us to swap them out...they say, "they are brand new, I just bought them online..."

My boss always lets them give us the boxes to put in...half (50%) of the aftermarket boxes I see do not function correctly. I never test them like this before I put them in cause I can switch boxes in just a few minutes, but maybe I should start testing like this right in front of them before they even leave thr shop..

Anyway, we find all these bad boxes, tell them to o home and buy genuine merc boxes and don't charge them anything: wasting a half hour or so of our time cause they tried to save a little money. Long story short, these aftermarket boxes cost us a lot of shop time because people bring them in all the time...and they never run right.

[NoRdO]

Yea, I want nothing to do with them. It must cost the chinese a few $ or less to make these... It's funny, the ebay seller is clearly in china with a us distributer.. They reply to all of my messages at 2am and keep trying to ship me new boxes, of course they could care less if I sent the old ones back. I keep telling them I want a full refund haha... If it comes to it, I'll just let ebay deal with them, they have a pretty clear return policy...

If we had a competent legislature in this country, this kind of crap wouldn't even be allowed in...

[NoRdO]

From the seller....

"That is fine, we will follow your wishes. In this case, we are willing to give you a full refund without returning the item, please kindly check your account within 24 hours."

They literally make these cheapo switchboxes with low grade consumer electronic components that you would find in a $250 4K 55" tv!

[Bigchris090]

Don't touch them. PVL Germany make the best ones. Known as "Mallory" I think over in the US

[nitro_rat]

I think they're sold under the "Sierra" name now days...

[ivlakeman]

I have set of switchbox's that's testing at 1410 and 1413 a little over cdi 1400 max is this a problem they came from Amazon High Performance Switch Box CDI Power Pack for Mercury Marine 90/115/150/200 332-7778A6 332-7778A12 332-7778A9


Brand: BLUE ELF

[rgsauger]

tel:3276597[/URL]"]3276597[/URL]]

Brand: BLUE ELF

who the F names a marine parts manufacturing company “blue elf”??? sorry but I gotta pass.....

these are the cheap ass chinky parts we are talking about. It’s your motor so your call. Good luck

[ivlakeman]

why does everyone rely on chinky CDI specks are tops and CDI boxes are junk ?????????????????????? CHINA CHINKY MAKES ALL OF THEM ANYWAY SO WHATS LEFT TO RUN

[rgsauger]

There are still switch boxes that are available from Germany. They are a superior product and have a dual diodes. Sure, the cost more but they also work and last. You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken s**t.

[ivlakeman]

There are still switch boxes that are available from Germany. They are a superior product and have a dual diodes. Sure, the cost more but they also work and last. You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken s**t.

who sales them.....not the chicken salad