This isn't a boat post but it can effect every boat with a squeeze bulb fuel primer, regardless of the brand of the engine.

[Texasmark]

Not going into all what I went through but today's EPA approved squeeze bulbs are plague ridden nuisances. After several days of scratching my head because my engine wouldn't start for this season, I determined that it didn't have enough fuel in the combustion chamber to combust. Problem turned out to be two new malfunctioning squeeze bulbs.

I had a couple of 3 psi fuel pumps that I had sitting around and threw the bulb in the trash with words fitting the occasion and installed the pump driven off "switched" 12v. I turned on the key, gave the pump time to fill up the carbs hit the fuel enhancement button for a few seonds with the throttle at maybe 3/8" to max, and the result was an immediate "roar" of my engine. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

[jlh3rd]

I know aftermarket squeeze bulbs can be more problamatic. I try to stay with Merc. or quicksilver brand.

 

[Texasmark]

I know aftermarket squeeze bulbs can be more problamatic. I try to stay with Merc. or quicksilver brand.

The old Merc./Quicksilver diamond shape was bulletproof but couldn't be sold anymore due to new restrictions that it couldn't meet. I had purchased another boat and no longer had that one. The first of my purchases for the newer boat was an OEM 3' bulb-hose package for about $35.....yeah, no brag, just fact in a "low prices store"........then after I kept having problems, I found a grey bulb (no hose), forget the source, in the same popular store. Recalling the first usage it worked great. I could feel the bulb get stiff as the engine was filling with gas. Then less than a year later, with very little use, same problem with the new one as with the last purchase.

 

[Scott Danforth]

buy moeller fuel parts (OEM), not attwood/sierra/amazon

 

[Texasmark]

buy moeller fuel parts (OEM), not attwood/sierra/amazon

I'll check them out. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Texasmark]

I cut the two open to see why they were so hard to squeeze. The OEM had 3 layers of rubber...the outer shell and an inner adjacent to the outer. Then inside was a separate, shorter, narrower, thicker sleeve and probably was the big reason for that being so hard to squeeze from the onset. The other one, gray one, popularly sold on aftermarket stores, had one layer of rubber. Must have had a valve stick shut and wouldn't let the fuel out.