hi,
I have a 454 chevy motor, it is in a jet boat. I know this isn't a boat forum, but this is my last resort.

it is a bare bones installation, its got a 750 holley dp, edelbrock carb. and I put ina mallory hei distributor.

the dist. is wired with one hot wire going in, and a tach lead coming out. there is no spark whatsoever.

what is the problem? I even wired in the hot directly to the battery thinking maybe the problem was a short on the ignition switch, but that didn't do anything either.
I bought the dist. last season, wired it up, and the boat sputtered a few times, some things came up, and I put it in the garage, and then I thought I would mess with it this season.
is there a way to test the coil? could there be a bad ground?
help please!