1992 Force by Mercury 40 hp. Starts and Dies

[FisherOwner]

I replaced the water pump because the motor ran perfect. Started on first crank and idled like a dream. But no telltale. After installing telltale and new impeller, the motor ran fine but a misalignment in the water tube made the motor get hot. Ran just a couple of minutes and shut it down to avoid overheat.

Redid the water pump job and fixed the cooling issues. (It spits water from the telltale now).

Now, go to start motor (in water tank), and it starts fine and runs for a few seconds and dies. Will not reach idle.
Troubleshooting thus far, bulb and fuel line appears to be fine. Disconnected the outbound line from the fuel pump and turned over motor which caused it to start and die but shot fuel from the fuel line.

Not feeling like motor blown but what else could cause it to run great and now not run at all?

 

[rocknroj]

My first suspect is almost always the needle valve being stuck closed... If you are lucky you can tap on the the top of the carb above the valve. Your symptoms sound like what my OB does when the needle is stuck..

 

[FisherOwner]

You wont believe this, never over look the simple things. Neighbor came over and while I started the motor he gave it a little manual throttle at the throttle body. Purred like a kitten. The idle adjustment somehow backed off. I readjusted the idle linkage and it started right up and ran fine. Not sure exactly what the rpm's are but, I adjusted it for smooth operation in the interim.