1990 Mercury | 2-stroke | 15hp
 

Greetings All!


I just got my first boat last year, its the family boat that came with a 1990 2-stroke and its been always been with the family.

My grandfather took great care of it and I love the motor, however, I have a few things I would like to address to try and learn more about my motor.

Disclaimer: I am a little bit mechanically inclined, but not for boat motors.

More times than not, the motor works great, it always wants to start on the first pull or two, I can get it down to ~1.5mph and its nice and quiet.

However there are a few things I wanted to mention to see what I can start fixing/troubleshooting:


Concerns:

1). The motor does not want to start in the rain or on super humid/muggy days -- it can take 100 pulls before I can get it to start sometimes -- a couple times I couldn't get her started at all.

2). On regular days (not rainy or muggy), the motor will start no problem, but as soon as I give it any gas it can choke out -- its happened three times already this year in the handful of trips I've made out so far. So I have to put it in drive and very very slowly and incrementally increase my speed. This can take up to 5-7 minutes.

3). The choke has a knob that I can turn to increase or decrease idle speed -- it works but there is a serious delay on how responsive it is. This lag or poor responsiveness could also be applied to the throttle itself. I can floor it and it takes about 5 seconds before it really opens up.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mer...2f9d4c212f.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mer...a2b750a978.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mer...2381b5f18d.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mer...4380f70567.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mer...7ebd51ee25.jpg

Maintenance that I am aware of:

1). Flushed and refilled the lower gear fluid
2). Spark plug is only 1 year old
3). Impeller is only 1 year old
4). I haven't opened the carb yet and I don't know how long its been since thats been cleaned.


Now my initial reaction is I should probably open up the carb and check out the wear and tear.

But I need some help on what else I can do to troubleshoot or correct the issues mentioned above.

Appreciate any help in advance!