Recently the proud owner of our first decent sized boat.14' starcraft. guy i bought it from says the motor runs excellent. And that it does ,its starting it that makes me wanna cry. Its a 80-81 merc 25 hp. has a knob type choke which you turn to the right till it clicks in position for choke on ? Ok so what are we doing wrong? plug in the gas,squeeze bulb 4-5 times. turn choke all the way to the right . then pull and pull and pull about 10-20 times 
.slowly it gets more and more like it wants to start if we pull 1 more time.then once it does we take the choke off and for the most part it remains running . cant give it gas cause giveing it gas puts it in gear. what position is the knob supposed to be in when running? if i shut it down its the same process all over again.not good for a bad back and i wanna be on the river once i get confident this motor isnt going to sleep and not wake up. thanks for all replies.<br />Scott
.slowly it gets more and more like it wants to start if we pull 1 more time.then once it does we take the choke off and for the most part it remains running . cant give it gas cause giveing it gas puts it in gear. what position is the knob supposed to be in when running? if i shut it down its the same process all over again.not good for a bad back and i wanna be on the river once i get confident this motor isnt going to sleep and not wake up. thanks for all replies.<br />Scott