hard starting

[popsmazz1]

I have a 1970 80hp. its hard to start cold, I have to crank it over for about a minute b4 it will fire. the guy I bought it from said to hit the primer only 2 or 3 times. once it starts it"s fine. after the initial start it will start right back up. it has those perma gap plugs in it that are clean and fairly new, can they be the problem? thanks.

 

[jake505]

Re: hard starting

According to my manual it should take L77V plugs which I think are the ones that don't have a little metal piece that comes off the end they are just flat. most likely a fuel problem. Could be a few problems or maybe all of them. it could be you need rebuild your fuel pumps which is no big deal really pretty much just pull out a couple bolts and put in new gaskets and diaphrams. another problem could be a bad fuel line which is also an easy fix. another thing it could be is the carbs need to be rebuilt and cleaned.

what you could try is taking the cover off the engine and have some one pump the primer bulb and some one else look for fuel leaks anywhere. if your primer bulb gets hard after pumping it (may take more than 3-4 squeezes just keep squeesing till you find a leak or it gets hard then stop dont force it if it gets hard thats a good way to break something for sure). if you find a leak then you know where your problem is and fix it accordingly if it gets hard and there are no leaks try starting it it may have been you just weren't pumping it enough. if it doesn't get hard but you dont see any leaks anywhere it could be that the primer bulb went bad and when you are squeezing it its not pumping any fuel to the pumps or carbs, or it could still be a problem with pumps or carbs.

I had this exact same problem on my 69 mer 800 80hp where i couldn't get it started but then once it did get started it was fine turned out my 40 year old pump gaskets had gone bad, a fuel line dry rotted, and the carbs needed to be cleaned.
one more thing be careful not to crank your engine to much when you are trying to start it, crank it for no more than 10 seconds at a time then let it sit a few seconds or you can burn up your starter.

 

[rosser1]

Re: hard starting

or it maybe like my engine, just needs a lot of chocking before it will start.

 

[jake505]

Re: hard starting

a lot of chocking is one thing but you should never have to choke a engine for a minute by then it should flooded completly and if not something is wrong. no engine is designed to be like that

 

[popsmazz1]

Re: hard starting

I found that if I crank it and keep hitting the primer button 10 seconds at a time after 2 or 3 trys like that it starts, I don"t think this motor has a choke. previous owner told me to hit the primer twice, I believe he was wrong, seems to start ok my way. I ordered an owners manual for it, maybe that will tell me the proper way to cold start. thanks for your help guys.

 

[popsmazz1]

Re: hard starting

does anyone know if this motor has a choke? is that button by the shift lever a primer or a choke? the manual says to choke the motor but doesn"t say what the button is for.

 

[milehighboater]

Re: hard starting

The motor will have a choke. the primer is the bulb on the fuel line. When you prime the bulb will become firm. it will be between the engine and gas tank. The choke is going to be by the throttle/shifter. When you are starting cold turn over the engine with the choke on and a bit of throttle. There should be a button on the shifter handle that says "throttle only" push that in while shifting into gear and only the throttle will operate and the motor will stay in gear. Just make sure not to over rev the engine when it starts up, red line is around 5000rpm. when you are warming it up 2000 works just fine. good luck