fuel connector not connecting (physically impossible problem)

[nlowplacez]

Hey whats up everybody. First post on here. Heres the deal. I don't know much about boats but love to fish so I bought a 14 foot jon a couple months ago with a merc 9.8 hoping it would be simple enough for me to figure everything out. I broke the pull chord the first hour I had it and spent a day fixing that on my own and was very proud. haha. and now something else has came up that is preventing me from running the motor.

Theres a hose from my gas tank to the motor, duh. Its always been an easy connect, just stick the plug thing in the motor give it a quarter turn to lock and done. NOW, the quarter turn is not possible. No idea why. The plug looks fine, the motor part that looks like this =o= is fine as far as i can tell. its physically not possible that i can't get that quarter turn in. someone has cursed me or put a spell on my motor and thats bull crap. If you don't know what I'm talking about the hose plug is a female type with slots on either side and you push it in and then it turns to let the little arms on the male (motor) part lock in place.

Has anyone ever had this happen or have any idea what i can do to get my motor running and start catching 12 pounders again? (i wish)

thx
drew

 

[d.boat]

Re: fuel connector not connecting (physically impossible problem)

What year is your engine?

Did this connection EVER work for you? Did you change the tank or hose?

The older little mercs (pre-1971?, somewhere around there) used a smaller gas line fitting than current. It looks exactly the same, but it's smaller. Could it be that you now have a mismatch?

 

[Stratocaster]

Re: fuel connector not connecting (physically impossible problem)

I don't have that connector but I used to on my old motor, so I know what you're talking about.

This past weekend, I had no success at all trying to get my connector on my newer merc motor. It's a brand new connector and hose, and I had connected it the day before with an easy 'click'. I was pushing so hard I almost broke where it is attached to the motor!

Turns out that the ball check valve in the connector was unable to be pushed in, due to the hose sitting in the sun and building up pressure. This pressure prevented me from pushing the connector onto the male fitting on the motor!

I used a wooden chopstick to push the ball in, and eventually got it to go in enough that fuel sprayed out of the end. Once the pressure was released, I had no problem getting the connector onto the fitting.

You may want to check that as a cause. But be careful!

-Mike

 

[nlowplacez]

Re: fuel connector not connecting (physically impossible problem)

thanks for the replies. i think its a late 70s like 76 thru 79 but not positive what year exactly. Yes, I've ran the boat many times and the connector always went on perfectly with ease. The only thing I can think of, is usually I take it off when the boat sits. Last time, for some reason I left it on for about a week between fishing, but I can't imagine that causing it.

I did use needle nose pliers and push the ball in, but just to make sure it moved. No gas sprayed out, and I didn't push real hard, as I figured if it moved it was fine. Maybe I should push til gas comes out??

Thanks guys.