[elpaso]

1995 250 hours - History - has always been hard start since new. Boat sits 7 months a year insouth Florida. Started once a month for 10 min.As of March 2004 - ran rough would not idle -had carbs. rebuilt - found lots of varnish - filters replaced - running on portable tank-new gas. New fuel lines and ball- ball is hard.Now- idles good - runs great -but still hard starting ? You have to choke it to death to start. Or 1 shot of starting fluid. After first start of day - it will start 20 times in a row -and run great all day.When cold - its a pain ?

[xewizzard]

I'm not an expert but cured my '94 115 of this problem by resetting the floats to factory specs. Mine were .040-.050 inches low. Had been chasing this problem since I bought the motor 3 yrs ago. The manual gives a tolerance of + or -.020. If I were you I would set them on the high side of this tolerance. I set mine for zero tolerance. Been using it a lot the last two weeks on the Columbia river in 40 degree temps and it fires right away every time. Good luck.

[jim dozier]

Check out "trouble cold starting" by Jeff Prater, a similar post currently running on this board. Pull the airbox and verify that the choke butterflies are closing COMPLETELY with actuated. Chokes need to shut tight to work right.

[arkansasboatman]

Assuming the choke solenoid is correctly adjusted and is closing the choke plates competely, try starting the engine using only the manual choke. If the engine starts fine then the problem usually is the choke solenoid is not holding the choke plates closed during the choking process. The strength of the choke return springs is overcoming the solenoid allowing the plates to flutter thus the engine is not pulling in the fuel it needs to start. I filmed this with a high speed camera and actually watched this happening. The only real solution to this problem that I have found is to remove the choke return spring on the top carb reducing the return spring energy allowing the solenoid to hold the plates closed during cranking. If you do remove the top choke return spring, you need to put a couple of plastic zip ties on the shaft area where the spring was so that the plastic bushing on the choke shaft will not slide out of the housing.Do what is best for you. Has cured cold starting problem on all of the carbed Yamahas with this symptomGood Luck