1998 johnson 25 hp fuel make it to carburetor but choke/primer doesn't pull fuel through

Ive pulled carb and choke off the motor. No obvious problems with either that I could see. I am planning on ordering new o-rings and spring for the choke. Not sure if there's something else I should be paying particular attention to or not. This has been happening off and on for about a month. Like it will be fine one day and then the next it's like an oring dried out or something and isn't creating a seal to pull fuel through. Any thoughts as to if you think i'm on the right track would be appreciated.

O-rings do not " dry out " overnight !!-------------2 cylinder or 3 cylinder motor ??-----------------The carburetor must be full in order for the primer assembly to work.-------------------You can remove the small hoses ( 2 cylinder ) and see if the primer is working consistently.-------------There is always a chance that the hoses or nipple are blocked.

Two Cylinder. Hoses and nipples are not blocked, have checked those. I would guess that the carb is not filling. When I prime the system from the fuel bulb and remove the carb from the line there's pressure in the line that was removed but I still can't seem to prime/choke fuel through the carb.

read my thread I just posted if you rebuilt your own carbs check that the gasket that goes over jet orfice and between the bowl is there and good. If not you will not have enough vacuum to suck fuel up into the carbs. just posted after my son in law forgot to and took me a while to figure out the same exact problem.

Electric or manual primer?

it is a single unit with a red knob coming out the side. arrow of red knob should be facing the bow or front if you turn it 180 degrees it is in manual feed I guess you can call it. it is the supply of fuel coming in and directly out the two little outlets without choking the engine. so really its both manual facing back to stern and electric using boat key to prime it pushing it in. does this help?

we gone through 4 new replacement kits oiling them and doing exactly what they say. We also did see it works correctly fuel coming through one and out. I am starting to wonder if the problem I posted on this site can be causing the problem? I have not received the gaskets so I will update you if that corrects the vacuum and fuel coming out of side of red knob. I even have two sets of o ring in all kinds of sizes and metric too and they would not stop it. lets see when I get my gaskets from here.

go to you tube they have all kinds of videos on Johnson engines that you can see. I found my problem when I watched one carburetor video of a rebuild and stopped the video so I could see what I missed (remember I did not take apart so no way of knowing) when I seen the shape of the gasket I knew exactly what it does. stops leaks and draws in fuel to jets. if your not getting enough vacuum through carburetor to lift fuel from bowl it don't take much for it to stop. Hence when you rebuild a carburetor take pics of everything lay out parts on a clean bench lay out replacement parts. sometimes you get a kit that covers a different kind of carb so extra parts maybe.

The fuel in the carburetor bowl must have atmospheric pressure on it.------If the gasket around the nozzle is missing then vacuum or partial vacuum might be present on the fuel.----Then the carburetor does not work as designed.

So what exactly is te problem with your motor? You talk about primer choke and you have an electric primer no choke. The electric primer is only a valve that opens and closes. As the motor is turning over the fuel pump pushes fuel through the primer. When you turn the lever you have to pump the ball in the fuel line to make it work in the manual position. The red lever must be inline with the body to work electrically and at 90 deg to the body to work manually.