Carl Culshaw
New member
Hello all, I am really hoping someone out there can help me with this problem I'm having. I have an 88 Mariner 50 which is new to me. Up until a week ago, it would start and idle fine, in and out of gear, good tell tale etc, basically everything was good. Now, being new to me, I wanted to test everything, including the control box kill switch to make sure it worked, which it did. Ever since then, the engine will not idle at all. It will start first turn of key on choke and fast idle, will run and run, drop down to half fast idle and it starts to get a bit ropey, drop down to idle and it will splutter then die in about 10 seconds.
Heres whats been done so far:
Checked all three sparkers and replaced with brand new, all three sparking great.
Good compression in all three cylinders
Checked all fuel lines (which are brand new anyway)
I've also had both carbs off, ready for a strip down and rebuild, one thing I did notice is that the amount of fuel in the top carb was 2-3 times more than the fuel left in the bottom carb and the small plastic holder than opens the two apertures has a split on one of the plastic springs. Everything sounds to me like fuel in some way but a bit stumped now. One thing that we have noticed is that the primer bulb does not go completely hard, it will pump up but never goes rock hard, can still be pumped but maybe only to about 1/5 off the way.
Heres whats been done so far:
Checked all three sparkers and replaced with brand new, all three sparking great.
Good compression in all three cylinders
Checked all fuel lines (which are brand new anyway)
I've also had both carbs off, ready for a strip down and rebuild, one thing I did notice is that the amount of fuel in the top carb was 2-3 times more than the fuel left in the bottom carb and the small plastic holder than opens the two apertures has a split on one of the plastic springs. Everything sounds to me like fuel in some way but a bit stumped now. One thing that we have noticed is that the primer bulb does not go completely hard, it will pump up but never goes rock hard, can still be pumped but maybe only to about 1/5 off the way.
Left running on fast for about a minute then throttled back to idle, she sat there and ran like a trouper until I turned her off. Now the interesting thing is, I could tell it wasn't running on all three, checked sparks and sure enough no3 plug was soaked. Dried it off, put tester on it, ran engine again, it was sparking but very very weak, in fact, although tester lit up, when checking actual spark you could hardly see it. Checked HT Lead and its knackered, end connector loose from wire and has now come off completely. Guess new HT Lead needed.