Merc big foot pro kicker

[Sangster21]

I have a 3 year old Mercury Bigfoot pro kicker 9.9hp. I have probably only got 35 hours on it in total. Ran fine last trip in Oct. Put it on the muffs a couple of weeks ago and it ran crap. Took several tries to get it started (electric start, power tilt, trim) and would barely go over idle. I changed the engine oil and gave it a try tonight, again barely over idle and it would stumble and shut down. I took it off the main fuel tank and put it on a portable tank... same deal. Put in gear and give a bit of throttle and it just shuts down. Seems like either fuel or ignition just goes away. It will still be on warranty, but before I take it to the dealer which is a couple of hour drive away I wanted to see if I was missing something obvious? Any one else run into a similar situation and can offer some suggestions?
Please and thank you.
Alan

 

[Sangster21]

Re: Merc big foot pro kicker

I called the dealer and he figured I likely had a gummed up carb as a result of not winterizing properly. Suggested I remove carb and clean it. Ok, carb off and on the bench. Sure seems clean in there was my first thought when I took the bowl off. Any way removed the plugs to remove the slow and main nozzles. The main dropped right out but not the slow. It appears from the manual that there are threads on the slow nozzle and a screw driver slot. I tried to unscrew the nozzle but it didn't move. Am I missing anything or do I just need to apply some more oomph? I am hopeful the slow jet shows some sign of being varnished as every thing else seems pretty good.

 

[Star]

Re: Merc big foot pro kicker

Hey 21,
That carb has a very small passage that feeds the idle fuel around the main butterfly at idle. The jets are not cloged!
put the jets back the way you found them, and hope you didn't damage them. remove all plastic and rubber parts and soak the whole body in a strong carb soak solvent. The line that is cloged come out on the engine side of the butterfly
on the top of theventury. Do not try to push wire through it , it is not a straight shot. the passage is very small plus there is a restrictor. After the soak try to squirt some seafoam through it. compressed air should be used to blow out all passages. A mercury manual is $70 is nice to have and I strongly recomend it to understand it. At the current cost of shop time it is a good investment. There are some here that don't believe in removing the idle screw brass plug because you will never get itset right after removing the idle screw. I am not such a purest. Good Luck!

 

[Sangster21]

Re: Merc big foot pro kicker

Star, thanks for the reply. No need to remove the slow jet.... okey dokey. I do have the factory service manual. Is the port you talk about under the top cover plate? Any way I will buy a jug of carb clean and give it a good soak. Are carb cleaners all the same or is there a product that is better than others? How do I prevent this from happening again? Stabil in the fuel tank and run the carb dry before it is stored for a period of time?
Alan

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Merc big foot pro kicker

Sea foam in the gas will clean it out as its being ran and stop it from happing again.

 

[Sangster21]

Re: Merc big foot pro kicker

Just finished bolting the carb back on. Tried to replace the impeller while I was wrenching and found the dealer gave me the wrong impeller.....drat phooey. So few hours on the engine, I put the old impeller back in and filled with new gear oil. Fired it up and she ran! Had to do a little fiddling with the idle speed and throttle link, but it seems to run just fine. Hooray for me. Thanks for the help.
Alan