1979 Mercury 9.8 won't start

[389is]

First post on this forum! So, I've got a 1979 Mercury 9.8 motor that's been sitting over the winter. It started and ran fine before it got put away last season. I took it out today to get it going. I give the cord a yank, and it doesn't turn over. I've taken out the spark plugs, cleaned them up, cleared out the fuel filter, and confirmed that fuel is flowing by squeezing the bulb with the fuel hose unplugged.

I've sprayed a bit of carb cleaner into the spark plug holes, and once I do that, it'll turn over and sputter for a few seconds before dying. Oh, and I've confirmed that I have spark coming from the plugs. Any ideas as to what's preventing it from running? Thanks for the help!

 

[mercuk]

Re: 1979 Mercury 9.8 won't start

I wouldn't spray carb cleaner directly into the cylinder head and try to start the engine up on that stuff if I were you buddy......Not good..

And by the sounds of it, the carb probably needs a strip down and clean where its had old fuel left over in the winter and blocked up the jets. Good luck.

 

[gm280]

Re: 1979 Mercury 9.8 won't start

First of all welcome to iboats :welcome: great to have you aboard...

To answer your question...YES... it seems you may have a clogged carb. While it may have run great before putting it away over the winter, the fuel that was in the carb probably evaporated leaving residue in the bowl and jets. So a carb cleaning is due...first. You have the old residue and oil left from the 50:1 mix. But your situation isn’t unique to only OBs, a lot of two cycle yard equipment has the same problem yearly too... Try cleaning the carb and see what happens...

 

[389is]

Re: 1979 Mercury 9.8 won't start

Thanks for the word of warning, I only tried starting it on carb cleaner once.. hopefully nothing too horrible resulted... Alright, I'll do the carb clean. Being somewhat of a beginner with this type of thing, can anybody point me to instructions/pictures on how to clean it out? I'm guessing I just take the assembly out, open it up and clear out any residue, but I don't feel like disrupting any of the little parts in there. Thanks for the replies, seems like I chose the right place to be!

First of all welcome to iboats :welcome: great to have you aboard...

To answer your question...YES... it seems you may have a clogged carb. While it may have run great before putting it away over the winter, the fuel that was in the carb probably evaporated leaving residue in the bowl and jets. So a carb cleaning is due...first. You have the old residue and oil left from the 50:1 mix. But your situation isn?t unique to only OBs, a lot of two cycle yard equipment has the same problem yearly too... Try cleaning the carb and see what happens...