Hey guys, I had some work done on my boat earlier in late Spring before a fishing trip. The boat has always ran super smooth, no problems. However, it sat for about a year while I was going through a home remodel and my wife and I had our twins. During that time, the steering cable locked up and the mechanic also rebuilt the carbs and it looks like he replaced the old fuel filter and lines inside the motor compartment with new ones. However, after I got it back and took it on the water, I was getting horrible stutters...the boat would lose power for a split second then kick back into drive. It would do this several times in a row. I thought it might just be air in the lines or burning off some bad gas. I always use fuel treatment though and the gas was never over a year old. Anyway, the 2nd day out on the water it would still stutter but not as bad, however it did go long stretches without losing power and stuttering. I haven't been on the water since, but at home I've ran it several times on the water hose just to keep it from sitting too long without running, at even at idle I still get the "popping' or 'stuttering' and a small puff of smoke before the engine revs back up. I was wondering if the spark plugs were bad so I took off the motor cover to look at them. THAT'S WHEN I SAW THIS! (picture). There was/is a line completely disconnected from what I'm assuming is the fuel pump?? It had a black plastic zip tie on the end but it wasn't tight enough to hold it onto the male end sticking out from the engine block or whatever that is. It was completely off!! Is it even possible it's been running like this the whole time and this is causing the problem. I ordered new spark plugs anyway, but I was wondering what this line even is for and what goes through it? I'm obviously going to reattach it, but am very curious what it's function is, and if that was my problem all along. If this is a vital line, I'm wondering how it even ran as much as it did, because although it would stutter, it never actually would die out on me and the engine never overheated. Any help would be appreciated.
