I'm new to your site from the UK, looks to be full of good tips and help.<br /><br />My problem is that my 4 cyl. Mecury 80hp from as the manual discribes as a pre 84. It has no Distributor, only a switch box on one side and 4 coils on the other side of the engine. <br /><br />Has slowly become very difficult to start and now it won't start at all. When it had been running recently it ran fine at speed, but would tend to stall at tickover. The tickover is set at 700/800 rpm, but you could not engage gears without it stalling. It would be a work of art to engage gear then apply throttle before it stalled and keep it going.<br /><br />1) I have removed the carbs and cleaned them and checked the float levels as per the book and set the mixture screws out by 1 1/4 turns from bottom.<br />2) Removed fuel pump and cleaned filter gauze and checked diaphram for holes etc. OK<br />3) Used fresh unleaded fuel and oil.<br />4) I have checked the position of the .464" marker on the flywheel and OK.<br />5) Fitted new plugs as a matter of fault finding.<br /><br />Questions;<br />1) How do you check if the enrichment valve is working. As the plugs always appear to be dry.<br />2) When checking the spark with an old adjustable gap type plug clipped to the engine for ground, the spark appears to be weak. Should it be a large blue crack as would see on a Car engine.<br />3) How do you check if the reed valves are working and has this engine 4 or 7 reeds.<br /><br />Would appreciate any your tips as to where the problems may lie.
