The centrifugal advance mechanisms in marine distributors tend to rust up and stick, resulting in a loss of top end power, bad idle, poor starting, loss of gas mileage, etc. There's a battle of spring force vs. centrifugal action going on inside the distributor, and the springs are very weak. A bit of rust or lack of lubrication and can't yank the mechanism back to full retard at idle.

So, if you time the motor with the advance not back to full retard (its normal idle position) you won't get full advance at cruising speed. And when (or if) the advance mechanism eventually returns to its normal idle position (full retard), the motor will now idle too low, backfire and stall when the throttle is juiced, and may even stall out completely.

So what's the fix? Exercises! (Did this today and it worked great.) Remove the cap and start flipping the rotor back and forth in a clockwise, counter-clockwise direction. Do it at least 50 to a hundred times if necessary until the rotor springs right back when you release it--it should rotate counter-clockwise about 10 degrees.

Free (my favorite price) and it only takes a few minutes.

Jeff

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I'm STILL waiting for my bailout!