Thread: Let me try this again,1987, 60 hp merc, 2 cycle, 3cyl

Originally Posted by fishbaskett

1987 60 hp merc.
Went fishing yesterday. When I first started the motor it kind of sputered like a backfire and I had to restart it a couple times, then when it did stay runing it sounded as thought it had a miss but eventually leveled out, just thought it was cold. We trolled for a while then motored to another location, then trolled some more then was motoring to another location, the motor started losing power then died. I thought the vent screw might have vibrated closed, no, checked the bulb, pumped up hard, was not sure if it was flooding or starving. I managed to get it to start a few times and throttled up with the cold start but as quick as I would put it in gear it would die, could let set for a while running with the cold idle, rev it up, but as soon as you put it in gear it dies. I unpluged the fuel line from the motor wedged the line open and pumped quite abit of gas out, pluged it back in and it was the same old thing. The tank was empty at the house, filled it on the way to the lake "No Ethanol", put in oil, ect.
Worked on it day before yesterday, put new plugs in, hooked up to "ear muffs" seemed to run fine cold idle, put it in gear did fine, reved up and all, carried to the lake this morning, starts but when you put it in gear it dies, you can play with it and get it to run in gear but without throttleing up very much at all, to much throttle it dies. Got home pumped some gas into a quart jar, looks fine. About to go out and pull the fuel filter to see if I have a good flow there.
Fuel or ignition problem ??
Might be tomorrow before I have time to check to see if if it is a fuel issue or firing issue, pretty sure right now it is a fuel issue. Just had carbs rebuilt a few weeks ago, new floats and all. it did something similar to this once before and the choke was not engaging, but pretty sure it is working now. going to change fuel lines with another rig I have to see if it might be collapsing.

Pulled the carbuerators this afternoon, took em down, blew every thing out good, did not notice anything odd. They were just rebuilt recently. Going to carry it to a professional tomorrow.

Any input/ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Sounds just like my 25 merc, ended up being the stator or trigger. Not sure which it was as I changed both at the same time.

If you can try it again and when it starts to die, pump the primer bulb a little. If it acts like it wants to go, rebuild the fuel pump. If you do rebuild the pump be sure to get the kit from Merc as it contains a new style check valve that E-10 won't hurt.

I carried it to a professional this morning, he did a compression and firing test. Compression was good, bottom plug was a little weaker firing that the other two, said the stater may be geting a little weak. He did not seem like he much wanted to work on it. He said it was a fuel issue.
I brought it back home and pulled the fuel line between the fuel pump and carb's and cranked it over, it seemed to be pumping plenty of fuel, I put the line back on and cranked it up, my son was there with me, we had a discussion about the amount of fuel we could see coming out of the carb's, the top one was spiting some fuel out, it also sputters and backfires once in a while..
I carried it over to a marine dealer shop. The mechanic there did not much want to work on it either but agreed to look into it, he is leaning toward a bad reed valve.

Originally Posted by Barnacle Bill

If you can try it again and when it starts to die, pump the primer bulb a little. If it acts like it wants to go, rebuild the fuel pump. If you do rebuild the pump be sure to get the kit from Merc as it contains a new style check valve that E-10 won't hurt.

Well been around the block this week. I am being told by professional mechanics that looked into and analyzed my motor that it is shot. No Compression on 2nd cyl, metal showing up in there. More expensive to repair than feasible. I am not going to put $1000's of dollars into the motor. I have an older model 50 hp evinrude, I guess I will try to change it over to my tracker and use it for a while. I will sure miss my 60 hp Merc.

One mechanic said the compression was good, and the next mechanic said the compression was bad in a cylinder? Did you run it long enough between checks that you could have blown it up? I'd get a third opinion.