97 20HP Merc Inlet Needle

[scumfrogmillionaire]

Cleaned the carb of my 1997 20 hp Mercury, put everything back together and the motor would not fire. Upon further inspection, it doesn’t look like fuel is making it into the bowl at all. Disassembled it and the bowl is dry but the fuel pump is wet with gas. This leads me to believe that the inlet needle valve isn’t allowing fuel from the fuel pump into the bowl? I inspect the needle and it has a soft tip that looks like it’s missing a chunk at the base. Upon testing, the needle seems to get stuck in the inlet no matter what position the float is in. I cannot find a replacement soft-tip needle valve. It appears to be discontinued. Have they replaced this with a hard tip needle?
Serial is 0G543280

 

[flyingscott]

Get a good rebuild kit for that carb. Should include fuel pump and primer assemblies.

 

[Faztbullet]

Yep ...tip is on Viagra (heehee)
Here is replacement 1395-803861

 

[scumfrogmillionaire]

Replaced the inlet needle. Started it up, adjusted a few idle speed screws and did a seafoam decarb. After that, it was running great. Go to start it this morning and starts up first pull but started to shake once the rpms came back down until it finally just shut off. What the heck?! It starts up first pull again, then begins to shake and finally sputters down to nothing again. Bulb stays hard, spark is great on both cylinders, fuel line was just replaced. How do I troubleshoot this? I did just realize that the gas is from 12 months ago.