Motor Trouble

[AaronM]

I have an '96 Evinrude 115 HP outboard motor. When starting, it seems the motor has trouble getting gas. When I push the throttle down, the motor will just die. It takes a few minutes of going slow before I can throttle down for the motor to "catch" and act normally. Is this a quick fix? I have zero mechanical skills, but can learn quickly if it's not too hard. Thanks for any help!

[Valv]

Sounds like your pump is going bad or fuel line not feeding.

Do you mix gas or is it oil injected ? We need a little more details before we can pinpoint the problem and try to address it.

How old is the gas in tank ? Have you tried to add seafoam ? When you take off have you tried to squeeze fuel bulb until tight ? Does it take off good when you squeeze bulb ?

[AaronM]

Valve - It's oil injected. The gas is brand-new. I have not done anything to try address the problem..Squeezing the bulb does help, but it still seems the motor seems to shudder a bit before kicking in. Thanks!

[AaronM]

bump!

[Surface Tension]

Could be a lot of things.

I'd start along the lines of what Val said and go over the gas supply starting with the tank and to the carbs.

When was the gas filter last changed or cleaned last?

[jparrucci]

My father had a Stratos boat with the same motor on it. It was doing EXACTLY the same thing. We thought it was related to the throttle. Replaced a bunch of the linkage/etc. to no avail. You could punch it and it would die or just slowly go along, and then all of a sudden it would kick in and go like crazy, and felt like there was nothing wrong with it at high RPMs. Over the winter he brought it in to a shop-he had a cracked cylinder head. The mechanic said it was sleeved so it could be salvaged, but we eneded up selling the boat as it wasn't worth the money on an older bass boat.

Hopefully this isnt the case with your motor, but talking to a mechanic at a marine said they have seen the same thing in a number of the late 80's-early 90's evinrudes in the 110-115 HP range. Good luck

[united jigsticker]

Could be as simple as dirty carbs, or the engine bneing cold blooded.

What happens if you choke it slightly when you apply throttle?

[AaronM]

Thanks for the replies. I'm thinking it has something to do with the fuel pump - although the carbs may be needing a cleaning. I'm bringing it into the shop to get checked out. Thanks for your time guys!