Motor slow to star?

[Kyle Sandberg]

On my boat, I have a 90 HP mercury two stroke. After I launch it, it's hard to get started. Might it be a carb thing or a feul line. BTW, plenty of oil.

Thanks

[united jigsticker]

It's a long list, less you help us narrow it down.

I'll make it easy...

Year of engine:

Age of fuel:

Last spark plug change:

Fuel filter change:

Gas Bulb firm and holds pressure?:

Choke operating properly?:

Proper starting sequence used? (firm gas line bulb, wide open choke, no throttle advance, crank @ 5 second intervals with 5 second pauses until engine starts)

Winterized properly for last storage? (if so, how, ie. cylinders fogged, fuel stabalized, etc?)

A few ideas:

Fogging oil can foul plugs: Check, gap, and replace as needed.

Old gas fires hard, even if stabalized. Replace fuel.

Check valves in gas hoses go bad and cause the engine to have to "draw" harder to get fuel, thus making starting difficult. Check and replace.

Fuel filters become plugged and create delivery problems.

Carbs gum up with varnish and cause needles to stick, especially after being tilted in a transport position for a period of time.

If none of these K.I.S.S. items solve or seem to be your problem, then you will need to dig into it a little further and look into weak ignition components, carb rebuild or tuning, etc etc.

[Kyle Sandberg]

Sorry, it's a 2002 2 stroke.

Fuel is brand new. No leftover.

Spark plug- don't know. I'll check

Gas bulb seems to hold pressure. Haven't really checked. Mabye a little loss

NO choke as far as I can tell but there is a thing on the throtle that is for cold starts. Gets the RPMs up wihtout putting it in gear.

Winterized with all the bells and wistles.

Will try some stuff and see what happens.

[united jigsticker]

There is either a choke or a primer, and this is what you need to use when the engine is cold to get it to "pop off" quicker.

The release on the throttle allows you to advance the throttle without being in gear, for instance, if the engine were to flood.

[boatfixer]

To "choke" or "prime" you need to push in the key.

[rtwills]

I have a 125 with the same problem , it seems that when the motor is trimmed up ,it messes with the float.try trimming down the motor all the way when starting it seemed to help on mine.

[archerystud]

I've got a 99 115 Merc 2 stroke that is always seemed to be hard to start and keep running after I pull it out of storage.

Finally learned to keep holding the key down and then once it got running I keep tickling it with a little choke for about a minute. Seems to run fine after that.

[Surface Tension]

Hard cold start: Make sure you prime/choke and if so that its working. Like what was suggested you might have to tickle it a while till it warms up.