Mercontrol Levers Question

This is my first post. Bought a used boat and it came with a 1977 Merc 700 Series Thunderbolt 70 Hp.

I've read in other posts that the warm-up lever should not move when the throttle lever is out of neutral and the throttle lever should not move when the warm-up lever is engaged.

What could be wrong if that is the case?

Also the warm-up lever works fine when starting the motor. I am able to place the warm-up lever all the way down and the motor idles fine.

As soon as I push the throttle lever forward, the motor wants to conk out. Most times it does...other times, I go extremely slow on the water, even with the throttle all the way forward.

If the motor does die, I can only get it to go forward using the throttle and warm-up lever together.

I've replaced the power-pack with a new one because it was only firing on one cylinder and that was the issue with that.

Any ideas for this newbie? Thanks in advance.

Re: Mercontrol Levers Question

The reason "you" can move the fast idle and throttle at the same time is because the prior owner broke the interlocks trying to accomplish the same thing you are having to do to get the engine to run. If you have to go through that process, it is time to do some troubleshooting and figure out if the problem is fuel, spark, or both. I'm guessing fuel. Carb rebuilds are probably necessary. Then a link & sync should be done after that. New plugs, and if the engine has a great deal of carbon build-up, a de-carbon process should be done. Just use the search feature in the blue band at the top of this page and type "De-carbon" or "De-carb" or "Decarb procedure". There is a bunch of info here regarding how to do that.