I was tracking down a stalling problem in my 1974 mercruiser 140 and checked the fuel filter in the ”bowl” on the top of the fuel pump. When I removed the filter, both of the metal ends fell off, revealing ugly white material that left pieces all over, as shown in the attached photo. I put the bowl back on with no filter and ran the boat with no stalling problems. I plan to check the carb bowl for debris and replace the filter with the proper Mercruiser part. I think the one that failed was a Sierra, and only about one year old. Has anyone seen a filter fail like that? Is this another result of ethanol, or something else in the gas, or just bad adhesive holding the metal pieces to the paper portion?
