kicker motor gas line

[mrjigger]

Last year I put a kicker motor on my boat. I bought the boat used and it had an auxilary gas line already installed. There is a switch to toggle from main and aux. however, ever since installing the kicker I have had nothing but problems with the gas line. It seems there is a pressure issue because the primer bulb goes flat and the motor kills all the time. prime the bulb again and the motor starts right up. I even installed a new gas line, but it did not solve the problem.

What I am wondering is if I can just install a "T" in the main gas line and branch off to the kicker.

I am fairly certain it is not the motor, it always starts easy and runs great until the bulb goes flat.

[Fishing Junky]

My guess would be you have a bad primer bulb to the kicker.

[boatfixer]

You need to put in a t valve so you select which motor to feed. It is sucking the gas from the other motor's line until it starts sucking air, then as you described, dies.

[marine_man]

So, to summarize your post, you currently have a kicker plumbed into a T valve, with a selector to choose which motor gets the gas, correct?

No, I would not put a straight "T" fitting in without a valve - you'll still have similar problems, but will be sucking air instead of no gas.

Are you sure the problem is not motor related? Is it possible that you have a weak fuel pump on the kicker motor? I presume since you say that when you prime the bulb again the motor keeps running that you're getting gas through the T Valve... so I'd be suprised if that's the problem.

Do you have a portable gas tank that you could run it on to verify that it's not the motor itself?

marine_man

[mrjigger]

Marine - Man,

Yes, I do have a T-Valve with a selector to chose which motor to send gas to. However, it seems there maybe a problem with the T-Valve and selector. It does not seem to matter if I have the switch on AUX or main, the kicker motor runs the same. However, the main motor will not run without the selector switched to main. The whole problem is just strange. The motor is a 9.9 yamaha 4 strk that I bought brand new last year. Sometimes it runs great, other times it runs like dump. Just about the time I am getting frustrated, it will run like a champ. I was going to try the portable gas tank Idea next. thanks

[marine_man]

Any chance you can take a picture of your setup and post it?

marine_man

[mrjigger]

Marine - man,

I will try to get the picture posted soon. Thanks for the help.