How to remove carb on old 4hp two-stroke???

I have an old Mercury 4hp outboard with no identifying numbers on it. I have attached some pix in the hope that somebody will recognize the model. I am trying to remove the carburetor to clean it up, but I cannot remove it to work on it. It is held onto the engine by two nuts which hold it onto two threaded studs on the engine. I've removed the nuts, but there is not enough room to slide the carb forward off the studs without hitting the engine housing. It looks like if I removed the manual choke operator, it might provide enough clearance to remove the carb, but it is not obvious how to do that. Can anybody give me a hint on what I need to do to remove the carb?
Thanks in advance for your help.

chatenever said:

there is not enough room to slide the carb forward off the studs without hitting the engine housing. It looks like if I removed the manual choke operator, it might provide enough clearance to remove the carb, but it is not obvious how to do that. Can anybody give me a hint on what I need to do to remove the carb?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Click to expand...

Yes, you have to remove the plastic choke handle. It has a spring in it that is holding the front handle to the back (inside) connector. Hold the back side (inner) connector with your left fingers/thumb or with a screwdriver, push inwards towards the carb on the front handle with your right hand, and turn clockwise or counter clockwise (can't remember which way but it will only go one way I think), and then they will come apart.

Once the carb handle/connector are apart, remove them. Careful, the spring will come out the front side with the handle.

Now you can remove the carb.

The pic below is small but if you click on it then it should get bigger or go here to see a better image: http://www.leeroysramblings.com/mercury_4.5.htm

You can see that the handle has a tee on it that fits into the back side of the choke assembly ... the spring is not shown in this image.

This was 10 years ago.-------He likely found out that the one nut does not need to be removed.----The other side has been machined / relieved to make the job fairly simple

Yes, 10 years ago, but no answer provided in this thread til yesterday when I finally figured out how to remove this carb. Hopefully this will help out the next person who is trying to remove it and has searched for an answer.

BTW, even though you don't have to remove the starboard carb nut, you really do have to remove it. You cannot get the 4-4.5hp carb off in this model range until you remove either the flywheel (PITA for most DIY people who don't have a puller) or remove the choke lever mechanism. It simply does not have enough forward or lateral clearance anywhere to allow the carb to clear the port side carb bolt to come out.