motor suddenly stopped working!!!

[dead_in_the_wataer]

I am new to boating. . . I bought a 19ft pontoon boat from a friend of the family. . . motor is a Mercury Marine FORCE 40 hp outboard. . . I have taken it out on the river about 10 times this year and it has ran great. Yesterday, I took it out and it ran for about 45 mins then sounded like it might be almost out of gas or somethin g so I put it in neutral to take a look and it just died. . . I still had 1 gallon remaining in my 6 gallon portable tank but I added teh remaining 5 gallons I had on board (the gas that was in teh tank was put in fresh teh day before, premium gas from BP properly mixed for 50 to 1 with 2 cycle oil). After I added the gas, I could not get it to start back up. I dropped anchor and tried a few more time waiting a couple of mins between each attempt and never letting it crank for more then 3-5 seconds. . . I tried pushing the button on the side of the throttle (quicksilver?) and choking it and was able to get it started but as soon as I let the throttle back down to engage the motor it died. . . this happened 2 more times before I could not get it to start at all. . . .After we got towed to a marina, I went and picked up a spare marine deep cell battery and tried swaping them out but the same thing happened. I later had a friend come check it out and he removed a screw on the bottom of the carb (carb bowl?) and let the fuel drain out and then flushe d gas through it by pumping the primer ball, then replaced the screw. . .after that did not help he checked the spark plugs and it appeared that neither of the two plugs was giving any spark. . . they were both wet and recieving fuel but no spark. . .also they were black, but wiped of clean very easily. . . we tried jiggling all the wires and ensuring all of the connections were secure but could not find anything. . . can anyone offer other suggestions for me to try before I have the guys at the marina look at it?

 

[roscoe]

Re: motor suddenly stopped working!!!

Welcome to iboats.

Confirm that the kill switch is in the run position.

Need to troubleshoot the ignition.

Ned to know the year, or model number, and serial number if possible.
There were 3 different ignition systems used over they years that Mercury made them.

The best thing you could do is buy a Clymer Force repair manual and follow the ignition troubleshooting section.

If you are going to take it to a shop, make sure they have someone that knows and understands Force motors.
They are not hard to work on, but are old school and the young guys can't fix them cause there is nowhere to plug in their computer or smartphone.