1970's mercury 115 thunderbolt inline 6 wont idle down or go in gear...

[boatnut1978]

Motor has had alot of work done to it.
Carbs, fuleline, wire harness repaired, distributor housing.

It would start and run on the hose just fine, first put it in the water and it would not start or run.
I found that my timing was off very bad, fixed the timing problem. Put my idle at 4 and wot at 22...
No it will start and run in the water but the idle is too high. There is no adjustment left in the carbs to idle it down. And if I knock the timing down so far that it idles down to go in gear then it just runs like crap.

With timimg in normal position it is idling @1300-1500 rpms, and when you put it in gear it just dies everytime.

PLEASE HELP.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: 1970's mercury 115 thunderbolt inline 6 wont idle down or go in gear...

Idle pickup timing should be 4-6* BTDC. That is when carbs should be just ready to open. YOu should be able to retard the timing from there all the way down until the motor stalls. That is the idle speed setting. Back off the idle stop set screw and adjust the throttle cable to push the throttle closed to achieve 850RPM or so.

 

[Charlie61]

Re: 1970's mercury 115 thunderbolt inline 6 wont idle down or go in gear...

I has to do what Chris1956 said to my 1983 115 inline, the only thing is I paid a gi to it sounded great before I put it in the lake. Same thing happen again , had to haul it back home mad is h---- the gi did not lock the cable down, it's working fine now