Bought a 1983 18 hp Mercury outboard, was supposed to run, but had no spark had to replace all electronics except for the trigger. Then good spark

Johnny Ringo ! · May 25, 2024

Bought a1983 Mercury 18 hp had to replace nearly all of electronics to get spark. have good spark and compression of 140 & 150 lbs I went ahead and cleaned the carburetor with carb cleaner. Spayed it into all passages and checked needle valve and float both looked good. Put it all back together and had trouble getting it started, it would almost start and then die. I finally tried to give it fuel when it tried to start and it started and revved up and I was able to open it up, it sounded good but emptied my tub of water and I throttled it back and it stalled. Put more water in the tub and tried to start it again and the same thing, it would try but not start and keep running. When you throttle this up by the tiller it also puts it in gear so I tried working the throttle by had, but I was not able to keep it running again. I only cleaned the carb because I was unable to find a rebuild kit for it or the fuel pump. I'm sure it's a fuel issue because I did have it revved up the one time when it expelled about all of the water from the tub. What should I do next ? Thanks in advance.