I have had some light experience with outboard motors. In the past I had some firing issues with a 40 Merc. When I began to diagnose I discovered that any shotgun replacement would be in the $200 to $300 range per part. I purchased a service manual for the exact motor and was able to diagnose it to the exact part. When we talk about electrical on outboards there are several items to question. The service manual will walk you through the test of each testable component using a multimeter. It will give you wire colors and resistance readings for the wires. I would suggest this route if you want to do if yourself. If you are not comfortable with doing this yourself then pay some one to diagnose the problem for you and you take care of the replacement. If you shotgun the problem it may cost you several hundred. Good luck.
Sounds like a bad charging system. Could be several things. A quick, cheap check would be to install an ammeter ($30?) inline from the alternator to the battery. If it reads positive, it’s charging. If not, it’s not charging. You should also have roughly 13.4ish volts running read from the + terminal of the battery.
“I’ve invested most of my money on women, drinkin’, and fishin…I blew all the rest”
im pretty inclined with the mutlimeter in-hand. and i bought the book this past sunday. i just like to get other opinions. and i like to research the literature and educate myself before i even think about touching anything. nothin worse than f-in @#@# up just because you were impatient and didnt know what that “thing” you messed up was…thanks for the suggestions.