Oh, please let there be a Mercury guru online who read this!

I have a pair of Mercury 50 Hp outboards on a houseboat. These are
relatively new, model year 2000, first sold in 2002, and only have 35 hours
on them.

They run awful!

I believe that the carburetors had gas left in the motors that went bad.
The end result is that neither motor will throttle up reliably. They start
OK, and if I can them up above 2000 RPM they run strong and steady. Getting
them to rev up is the problem, and they just won't run at 1800 RPM no matter
what.

I had a certified Mercury mechanic come out and look at the motors today.
He brought some test equipment that was essentially a four channel vacuum
meter that he connected up to test ports on the engine. With this he was
able to adjust the throttle linkage, idle speed, and idle mixtures so that
all four cylinders were in sync and pulling their weight.

It didn't help.

He said, and I had pretty much assumed, that the low speed circuits in the
carbs were probably clogged.

Now here is the clincher: He said that this was an "EPA" motor and they are
NOT allowed to rebuild them! That Mercury does not even sell rebuild kits
for them. I have to buy a new carburetor assembly (four carburetors, one
for each cylinder).

Can this be right? Do you really have to buy a new carburetor instead of
cleaning the old one?

Come on, Joe, say it ain't so!

Rod McInnis

P.S. he hasn't quoted me a price yet. Can anyone tell me what a reasonable
price would be?