jdparsons1
New member
I have an early 80's Mercury 7.5hp (Serial #:6110787) that came on a boat i just purchased a month ago. The previous owner started it in a bucket for me and showed the forward/reverse worked but really never got the rpm's up on it. I just started it yesterday in a garbage can and it started on the 2nd pull. One thing i noticed though is it sounded like the flywheel was rattling and it was causing the whole engine to jump i wanted to see if the noise got better or worse when rpm's were up so i revved it about half way in neutral and there was an abrupt stop followed by a backfire. The motor wont start at all now. Spark is good and i've got around 130psi in each cylinder for compression. One thing i noticed was the whole time it was running the carb was leaking out of the opening. My first thought was i had two issues, something with the recoil starter rattling and maybe float level in the carb. But now that i'm looking at the exploded diagrams im wondering if this could be a reed issue. I believe my engine has the circular reed valve mounted at the top of the crankshaft just under the flywheel. Anyone here familiar with those and how much effort it is to get to them to inspect? Anything specific to look for or other thoughts?