Merc 110 9.8 74' ish

[Alex Merc 9.8]

Hello all,

I have a old 9.8 (serial 4000064 or so) that I am learning slowly how to repair most of it. Water Pump, Carb intake line, cleaned up the carb, worked with the air mix ratio screw so far.

Now the pull start is starting to fray at the very end when you pull it out all the way, I am of course concerned it will snap sometime in the future when inconvenient.. Also the pull string also sometimes doesn't have tension when you pull it, usually you can give it a couple quick pulls (short and long) and it will tension up and then you can start pulling and it will fire up in a half dozen pulls after a week.

I am looking for the actual part number for the pull cord now, but is the lack of tension related or do I have an additional problem creeping up on me?

Thank you all!

 

[merc850]

The grease in the spring and pawl assembly has probably stiffened up or not present, you can take it apart and clean-re-grease it (not WD-40) ~ (the nut [Nr. 1] is LEFT hand thread) and the pull cord can probably be found at a Mercury dealer.
There are a few parts to the assembly so keeping a detailed record of how it's assembled is a good idea.