I am working on a 1978 merc 800 outboard for a friend . He had another mechanic rebuild the carbs because the boat sat up for a while. the engine runs good when you get it started and will plane out and run good on the water. However, it wont start unless you have the warm up lever almost all the way forward. I don't see where any adjustments were made to any of the linkages so I don't think he messed up the timing or advance settings. I did notice that the "rub block" that opens the butterfly does not make contact and barely opens it only when the lever is almost all the way forward. since it runs good with no miss I don't think the carbs are dirty. fuel pump seems to be ok. on carbs that have low idle adjustment it would be easy, seems like something simple but I don't see it. I have adjusted the low idle mixture in water and in forward but it still dies as soon as you drop back the warm up lever.
