1964 Mercury 65 HP - Low Power

[scotie2hotie99]

Hi there,

I have a 1964 Mercury 65 HP engine thats been sitting well protected in a back garage for who knows how long. I pulled her out for the first time and unbelievably the thing started right up with the muffs on. She revs fine out of the water and all and doesn't overheat or anything, but when I actually put her in the water it'll only go up to about 10 mph. While she was running I shot carb cleaner into the top carb and it would shoot off and starting booking and then die off again when the cleaner was burnt up. I did not get the same reaction from from the lower carb. I pulled the top carb and rebuilt it but haven't got a chance to put her back in the water yet to see if that worked. I'm thinking I should also rebuild the fuel pumps while I'm at it, but does this problem ring any bells for anyone? Anyone got suggestions about what the problem could be?

 

[Yepblaze]

Re: 1964 Mercury 65 HP - Low Power

Yes do a fuel pump kit too they are cheap enough.

Actually I prefer to get the fuel pump check valve kit as it also contains the diaphram, gaskets, and check valves.

If you are still running off the old gas tank leftover residual dried up and turned to varnish gas, you can expect to repeat fuel system repairs. (perhaps many times till it gets only clean fresh fuel in the system and all the old junk flushed through)

 

[scotie2hotie99]

Re: 1964 Mercury 65 HP - Low Power

Thanks, I did get new diaphragms and gaskets but I didn't' get new check valves. Maybe I should get new valves as well. I have not been running old gas, we used this tank for our tractor's gas while we didn't use the boat so I'm not really worried about the tank.