I have a 1985 Mercury 115 ELPT on my bass boat. When I run the motor in forward and reverse with earmuffs on, it runs great. When I put the boat in the water and put it in drive, it stalls out/bogs down. Whenever I go to start it, I have to give it gas to start it up. I can never start it in the upright neutral position. Usually the faster I put it in drive, the more it seems to "catch itself" and run fine. Once I have ran the motor a couple times during an outing, it is much harder to get it to not bog down and die. When I move the forward position up and down really fast, it will then "catch itself" again and run, but I am getting frustrated with having to do that. Wide open throttle runs excellent. I had the carbs cleaned, just but brand new plugs in it, and had compression check. Compression check showed 2 cylinders slightly low, and I mean SLIGHTLY low. Mechanic said it wasn't something he was concerned with because it was basically within the limit of the others. I had some old fuel in the tank when I started the year out and just added to it. I haven't changed the fuel filter yet either. I am thinking 1 of 3 things. Fuel filter needs to be changed, the gas is bad and there is water in the gas, or the idle needs to be adjusted. Any thoughts?????? I was thinking about running all the gas out and putting fresh fuel in and putting in some heet with fuel injector cleaner and putting on new filter. HELP!
