Hard starting Merc 75 4 stroke

[Sifty]

A co worker has a new 75 horse mec that is a very hard starter. About five minutes of cranking to get it to go. After it has been started and gotten hot it will fire right up.

The motor has been started in netrual but seems to act like it is flooded.

The service tech said to start it at fast idle.

Any thoughts.

Sifty

[marine_man]

A couple of basic things first...

Does he prime the primer bulb till it's hard prior to starting it for the first time in a while?

Is he choking it (holding in the key switch and turning the key at the same time)?

Merc 75's are kind of notorious as cold blooded motors... often times you'll need to get it started and then run it at a higher idle until it's warmed up.

marine_man

[Sifty]

Yes he is priming the bulb.

They told him it is electronic choke and is not conacted to the key.

Sifty

[Fishin4Life]

Thats goofy, my buddy has an old pontoon with a 28hp with the choke connected to the key. Why wouldn't they do that on a new merc...THought that was pretty standard

[marine_man]

A lot of the new 4 strokes have an automatic choke that is regulated by a thermostat in the block... if the thermostat's cold it chokes it and if it's hot it doesn't...

Sifty - regarding your friend's problem it could be that the automatic choke system isn't working... I've heard of instances where the choke works the opposite way - it would choke when it was hot but not when it was cold. It'd be worth checking into, that's for sure.

marine_man

[WaveWacker]

I have an 02' 75 Merc 4 stroke and have had no starting problems to speak of. Mine is a tiller. Pump the ball until hard, typically my throttle is down all the way (below where it says to have it for starting) and she pops right off. Sometimes it acts as if it has a little too much gas and will die off when trying to give her throttle. A couple minutes of letting her idle and it's good to go. I typically only have to pump the ball the first time off the trailer for a weekend trip and then don't touch it for the rest of the weekend. Only problem that I did have is not running Seafoam constantly in with the gas and then not draining the carburetor's when I didn't use it for an extended period. I now religiously run SeaFoam.