1983 40hp Mecury

I have a 1083 40hp 2 cycle Merc. model # 113 298151 ser # 6228623

After expericing problems on the lake this weekend i have read about thousand threads that all seem like they might be the problem. But I need help on how to check said problems.

How do check the check valve in the primer bulb?
How do you check the Fuel Pump to see if its bad?
What do you clean the Carb. With with when re-building?

I am sure their are more questions but that is it for now. Thank you for any help you might be able to give.

I think that if the check valve is bad, you won't move any fuel when squeezing it therefore your carb will have no fuel and it won't start when cold. Fuel pump, if your motor runs out of fuel at higher RPM and you can pump the bulb and it straightens out, your fuel pump may be bad. Clean the carb with spray Gumout and compressed air.

Maybe an explanation of the symptoms would help, there are a lot of good guys with good advice on this forum.

The easiest way to check your fuel line is disconnect it from the motor and pump the bulb. If it gets hard (can't pump it anymore) after a couple of pumps that tells you 1) your tank pickup is probably ok 2) the bulb is working properly 3) it's probably not leaking anywhere

When cleaning your carb there is probably 100 products on the market that various people will recommend -

Some "don'ts" - don't use regular carb cleaner on any of the rubber or plastic parts - it will eat them

don't pick at any holes (jets) with sharp/pointy objects - you can deform them

Do - pick up a carb kit - change the gaskets, seals and needle valves - if the main jet looks messed up, do that as well (usually not part of the kit).

You can use "carb cleaner" on the metal body - can even soak the whole thing if you think it needs it.

Alternately as suggested I have used, Gumout, electrical parts cleaner (also called ignition cleaner) but by far the cheapest thing to use is isopropal alcohol (which can be bought as "gas line anti-freeze" for about 50 cents for a small bottle - it's more gentle and does a fine job of getting rid of varnish and other cooties (and is the only thing you can use on OMC's plastic carb bodies) - I soak the parts in it or use a small syringe (without the needle part) to flush through any fixed jets/channels.

And as hotrod noted, once you have confired your fuel hose is good, pumping the bulb while running would give you a (manual) fuel pump, so if your issue corrected, that would indicate a bad fuel pump. If you are going to pull, clean and rebuild the carb, personally, I would throw in a fuel pump kit at the same time (why not, you already have the fuel lines disconnected)...