Greetings,

I've never owned an outboard powered boat, but just purchased my first
one with a 40HP Mercury 2-stroke. At idle, the motor seems to idle
quite rough; so rough that my wife asked me if it was going to fall
off the boat!

I know the smaller 2-strokes are notorious for idling roughly, but
just how rough is normal I don't know. The motor has less than 50
hours, and was checked thoroughly before I purchased the boat.

Could the idle speed mixture be off, or should I just resign myself
that this is the way these things idle?

Thanks!

wrote:
Greetings,

I've never owned an outboard powered boat, but just purchased my first
one with a 40HP Mercury 2-stroke. At idle, the motor seems to idle
quite rough; so rough that my wife asked me if it was going to fall
off the boat!


I know the smaller 2-strokes are notorious for idling roughly, but
just how rough is normal I don't know. The motor has less than 50
hours, and was checked thoroughly before I purchased the boat.

Could the idle speed mixture be off, or should I just resign myself
that this is the way these things idle?

Thanks!

It could well be the low-speed idle screw, or too much oil in the mix,
or a partially fouled sparkplug. Multi-cylinder two strokes these days
idle decently, though not as smoothly as four strokes. You need an
engine adjustment.

--
"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in
Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me -
you can't get fooled again." -George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept.
17, 2002

wrote in message
...
Greetings,

I've never owned an outboard powered boat, but just purchased my first
one with a 40HP Mercury 2-stroke. At idle, the motor seems to idle
quite rough; so rough that my wife asked me if it was going to fall
off the boat!

I know the smaller 2-strokes are notorious for idling roughly, but
just how rough is normal I don't know. The motor has less than 50
hours, and was checked thoroughly before I purchased the boat.

Could the idle speed mixture be off, or should I just resign myself
that this is the way these things idle?

Thanks!

Do you have a tach? What RPM is it idling at?

--
-Netsock

"It's just about going fast...that's all..."
http://home.insight.rr.com/cgreen/

wrote in message
...

I know the smaller 2-strokes are notorious for idling roughly, but
just how rough is normal I don't know. The motor has less than 50
hours, and was checked thoroughly before I purchased the boat.

Not that rough!

What 2-strokes are really notorious for is fouling sparkplugs. I would
change the plugs before I messed with any mixture adjustments.

Rod

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 16:51:49 -0400, Harry Krause
wrote:


It could well be the low-speed idle screw, or too much oil in the mix,
or a partially fouled sparkplug. Multi-cylinder two strokes these days
idle decently, though not as smoothly as four strokes.

Wow, youre a friggen genius!

Do you have any other painfully obvious information to spew?

You need an
engine adjustment.

Thank for that wonderfull diagnosis you moron.

Do you have any idea how stupid you look?

Oh wait, of course not...youre not smart...

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004 07:50:21 -0400, "Netsock" wrote:


Do you have a tach? What RPM is it idling at?

800RPM in gear........