Cold Start Problems, Perhaps Primer Issues? Mariner 10 hp

[Lilbarwell]

Gooood afternoon!

Now I’ve been having some ‘fun’ with my new to me, mariner 10HP OB and I’ve got it in fairly decent shape, just needs fine tuning now.

Thanks to everyone for your help previously and to Samt for supplying me with some parts; you guys are awesome!

Having found the original cause of failure (dodgy gasket on the side of the powerhead), the OB has had bit of an overhaul including new impeller, gear oil, plugs and tiller / manual gear mechanism reinstated. I also ran a compression test (would have identified the original fault instantly) and am getting readings of about 90psi on each cylinder – actually pretty similar, should I be concerned?

Now the motor runs great (once running), however does struggle to get going from cold. I’ve been reading around and suspect the carb might not be priming adequately. I had stripped and re-built the carb and it all looked pretty clean with diaphragms, springs and bearings in great shape), but wanted to ask the forum what tests I could do to check? I had read somewhere that be pressing the blue button manually (replicating the choke), I should see a little squirt of fuel straight into the throat of the carb. Now I’m not getting this, so in a nut shell, is the motor not priming? If yes, I will strip and rebuild the priming mechanism.

Thanks again and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[beerbelly]

if you haven't got the choke connected properly you wont get that squirt of fuel that more than likely the issue. remove the carb and refit

[Lilbarwell]

I'm fairly certain the choke is properly connected, there isn't much to go wrong and when the choke is on, the blue primer is fully pressed.

My main question is, should there be an obvious 'squirt' of fuel?

[beerbelly]

yes there should I only asked as I had a mercury 15 hp that had dirt in the carb I stripped and cleaned renewed everything with a rebuild kit but the fast idle and choke wasn't working as it should so I took it to a pro who quickly diagnosed I didn't have the fast idle adjuster correctly connected 5 mins later it was running like a swiss watch