1988 Mercury 25 hp Outboard (manual start) - No spark?

[Merc Girl]

Fairly mechanically-inclined woman -- new-to outboards, here. Just bought a very little used boat & '88 25hp Merc Outboard (manual start).
Motor so clean, you could eat off it. Must've been garaged. Never exposed to ethanol, until now. Started up, got rough - then stopped. Really
stopped. Hose liner to fuel tank totally mangled. Got fuel line kit & replaced. Then - nothing. Wouldn't start at all. Replaced spark plugs. Checked
for spark, no spark that I could see. Read everyone in the world's threads here!- disconnected kill switch wires, no spark. Replaced switch box. No
spark. Now stuck. I don't know how to check stator - through (from everyone's threads, that's the first or second thing to check). Bought
an Ohm meter. Can't find anything on youtube on how to use it to check stator. Please, kind advice from anyone - to girl who is quick to learn
and doesn't just want to haul to shop? thank you in advance!

 

[Merc Girl]

Re: 1988 Mercury 25 hp Outboard (manual start) - No spark?

UPDATE: All's Well that Ends Well. Motor is now running great. I now think the 1988 25hp Mercury Outboard is a fine, fine motor. My family has always been Johnson people, but I now think Mercurys are great.

A friend recommended that I get a 12v Spark checker (at auto shop) to plug in to spark plugs and make absolutely sure I was not getting spark. Good advice.. turns out I WAS getting spark, but it was just too hard to see (in daylight/shade). Spark checker really helped.

So -- I think this motor (maybe this will help others with similar motors) just takes a bit of work to wake up after a very long, long nap. I think the start of every season, getting the motor running may be a two person job. I don't know why -- maybe the new EPA required attachments to fuel line -- but priming the bulb and keeping it primed seems to be more difficult. This motor really wants a the primer bulb hard -- constantly -- until the motor is really going.

So while a guy helped my by pulling start cord and choking and un-choking repeatedly -- I was keeping constant pressure on the primer bulb. After several minutes, the motor got running then died. Then started back up easily and stayed running. I killed it a few minutes later, let it sit for a few -- then tried to start it back up, no choke of course. Started right up. Now it was so easy, my 10 year old son was able to pull start cord and get it running (his first time for pull start, ever!)

The next day, I held my breath - thinking it would be another difficult start. Nope. Easy as pie. One person job. I'm just going to remember that if the boat has been sitting for several days, hook up a hose and get it started once and run it for a few minutes, BEORE trailering boat down to boat launch. For long-time boaters, this is probably obvious -- but for me, this is a revelation! How many husband/wife public fights at the boat launch could be prevented with this one simple step?! :happy:

Anyway, boat is running great (motor is on an old 14' Hi-Laker runabout). Ready for fun, sun and water now!