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Hard start No start, darn

Gordon Roberts

New member
I bought a 1 year old mercury 9.9 long shaft, that when started works well. It was less than 1 year old when I bought it about 5 years ago. It sits on a 25 ft Oday sailboat. Even after servicing last year, I went to start it after it had sat idle for 2 weeks on the boaat, and no matter what, new plugs exct, it still did not start. It was the end of the season for us so I had a small skiff tow us to the boat landing and took it out of the water with aspirations of having it serviced again the following year. Was not happy about that as it had just been serviced. And believe me that 9.9 is very difficult to take off the boat when it sits in the water.

I recently took it out of storage, hooked up water to it and it started first crank. Have been testing it on and off for the last 3 weeks and it starts first crank all the time.

Could it be that my gas tank on the sail boat being higher than the engine floods it out drastically while sitting there for a week or two? No apparent gas in the oil!

or:

I also considered that when the tiller is swung up out of the way that maybe the emergency kill switch gets wet of flooded and will not allow it to start. Ive since taped it so as no water can enter that switch.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Daysailer

PS our harbor has an exit entrance that is about 100 ft wide and full of turns for about 4 miles and with no power it is almost impossible to keep off the rocks using just sails.
 
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