HotTommy
Lieutenant Junior Grade
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2013
- Messages
- 1,025
As winter nears I'm dreaming of being on the water next spring. That got me thinking about a minor problem with the 1993 Force 150 outboard on my pontoon boat that has baffled me. .... I rebuilt the entire boat two seasons ago. That included removing and cleaning the 30 gallon fuel tank that sits near the rear of the boat. I also replaced the fuel gauge sender, filler assembly and all fuel lines including the primer bulb. I was never happy with the way the bulb felt when priming my first engine. It didn't seem to get very hard, but the engine ran well.
Last spring I replaced the first engine with my current Force 150. Getting it to run right was a long and arduous process where I frequently did not know what was causing it to be hard to start. I worked the primer bulb hard on many occasions and it never felt as hard as I expected it to feel, so I replaced it with a new one. That one felt no different. I was so unsure of its action that I started kinking the hose downstream from the bulb after every squeeze to make sure the valve in the bulb wasn't allowing gas to be sucked back from the engine as the bulb expanded. I never saws signs of excess gas leaking from the engine due to priming. .... I finally got the engine to run right (it was electrical) and it seems to be getting plenty of gas while running.
The nagging problem arose when I left the engine for a week or more. It was hard to start until I sprayed a little fuel into one of the carbs, leading me to believe it needed more fuel than the primer bulb was providing. I suppose its possible I got two bad bulbs, but I doubt it. So what else might cause a soft bulb and insufficient fuel at start up?
Last spring I replaced the first engine with my current Force 150. Getting it to run right was a long and arduous process where I frequently did not know what was causing it to be hard to start. I worked the primer bulb hard on many occasions and it never felt as hard as I expected it to feel, so I replaced it with a new one. That one felt no different. I was so unsure of its action that I started kinking the hose downstream from the bulb after every squeeze to make sure the valve in the bulb wasn't allowing gas to be sucked back from the engine as the bulb expanded. I never saws signs of excess gas leaking from the engine due to priming. .... I finally got the engine to run right (it was electrical) and it seems to be getting plenty of gas while running.
The nagging problem arose when I left the engine for a week or more. It was hard to start until I sprayed a little fuel into one of the carbs, leading me to believe it needed more fuel than the primer bulb was providing. I suppose its possible I got two bad bulbs, but I doubt it. So what else might cause a soft bulb and insufficient fuel at start up?