2004 Merc 9.9 2-stroke won't stay running - fuel problem

[lakelover]

Hi folks,

Getting the boats ready for the season today, I started my Merc 9.9 after having fogged it last fall & filling with fresh gas & oil today. It started but after several minutes, gradually lost rpm's and stalled. I found if I pump the bulb it will stay running after restarting. The bulb does stay hard after priming. I don't seen any gas leaks anywhere, or air bubbles in the filter.

I removed & cleaned the gas filter with spray brake cleaner & reinstalled it (until I can get a new one). That helped quite a bit, but I'm still having the problem. It occurred to me that maybe I should look at the pickup in the tank to see if it's gunked up. The tank & hose are the original 2004 Mercury Quicksilver with the silver colored hose. I thought I remembered reading that there was some problem with these silver ones?

Anyway, I looked in my Seloc manual to see how to remove the tank pickup and it only describes bolt-on ones and screw-in ones. Can't figure out how this one is supposed to come out?

 

[lakelover]

An update: It looks as though I was heading in the wrong direction here. This morning I tested it with my known good tank & hose from my other motor, and it did the same thing, so the problem seems to be beyond the gas filter anyway. It starts and idles for a minute or so, then gradually loses speed and sputters out.

 

[flyingscott]

Turn the low speed mix screw out another 1/4 turn and see what it does.

 

[lakelover]

Turns out it needed a carb rebuild kit.