---

I have a 85 18 Outrage with a 1995 150hp yamaha....Last week while pulling into my dock after about 1 hour of constant use my outboard knocked out.....It stalled and would not restart...Luckily I coasted into dock and thought I would try the next day...The next day it still would not start.....It would turn over but just would not fire up.......For fear of floading the engine and killing the battery, I stopped trying to get it to fire up for the day...One more day went by and after about 10 or 15 minutes of trying to get it to fire up, she finally did....Went for a ride for about 30 minutes..shut down to drift and to take a quick swim, then got back in boat and it fired right up. Drove back to the dock and docked for about 4 ours....After about 4 hours i wanted to take another ride. Same old story, she just would fire up again...Two more days of trying and she will not fire up...Here is a list of weird things that I noticed that may be contributing.....

1) About 3 weeks earlier I installed a fuel/water separator and drove with the new filter for only one full tank of gas (about 60 gallons worth)-everything seemed perfectly fine, actually ran better than ever
2) When I went to remove the filter from the fuel/water separator, I could not loosen then filter (even after I know for sure I did not over tighten when I first installed)....It was like it was sucked on or just somehow tightened on its own...It took myself and my brother to finally get the filter to twist off...
3) somethng else I noticed was the primer ball was rock solid....Like it was filled with fuel but clogged with something, therefore cutting off fule to the engine....I proved this theory wrong after I replaced the primer ball with a new one and fuel seemed to flow easily....Why would the old primer ball seem to fill with fuel but not "prime" anymore...It was 20 years old
4) inspected all 6 plugs and all seems wet and black.....I replaced all 6 with identical new ones...

So far here is what ive done.....I bypassed the fuel/water separator and just have the original set up from the tank to the outboard.....I replaced primer ball.....and replaced all plugs with new ones.......She still will just not fire up....I dont really smell fuel (so I dont think it could be flooded.....) but maybe thats the problem, im not smelling any fuel

Could I have a vapor lock? Could I need a carb adjustment? (its never been done, but boat has been starting and running fine all season till now) Could I need a new fuel pump? Should I check any fuses? could the fuel line be clogged? She just seems to be starved of fuel or something...Im getting plenty of cranking power, just no spark or fire....Cold the engine was always hard to start, but would always fire up after about 3 minutes or so and once warm would turn right over perfectly...now she is just not getting and spark or fire....Any ideas.....???? BTW...its a 2 stroke

---

Sounds like you might have air in the filter.

Disconnect the line then pump the ball until fuel comes out. You can shoot it back into the tank.

---

This may sound a little quirky but have you checked your kill switch? At one yime I had an intermittent kill switch and my symptoms were simliar to what you're describing above.

---

I would definately check the "Kill switch" (good thinkin CES), then pull the plug's and make sure they're "lightin up", then check to make sure that you have fuel to the engine from the tank and filter, make sure the arrow on the bulb point's from the tank toward's the engine (we've all put them on backward's by mistake, least "I" have). Then I would check the fuel pump for a pin hole. A "Compression" check might help too, after you check all of that (try the simple stuff first), let us know.

---

I will check the kill switch......However, if that was malfunctioning I would assume that the engine would not even turn over, but I could be wrong....yup the arrow is going the correct direction, I made sure I double checked that....From what I understand its very rare for fuel pumps to go bad, but its certainly possible...A compression check is a good idea...I wish I knew more about carborators.....Maybe its an ignition problem? It just seems weird why all of a sudden she doesnt want to fire up...frustrating

---

I just had a thought......Maybe the choke is stuck? or malfunctioning...Is there a fuse for the choke?

---

Most motors now will start with the "key" from the killswitch removed. (I know, most of you are going to try this to see) If inserted and then removed while running it will shut down the motor, but you can restart it without actually connecting the lanyard back to the kill switch itself. This came about due to kill switch keys getting lost overboard and boaters being unable to return home eventhough they had a perfectly good motor. Therefore I would definately rule out the kill switch.

---

Is there a fuel tank vent that could be clogged, causing suction and lack of fuel supply?

---

Given that the lack of starting is intermittent, I would suggest it is electrical in nature.

I had a similar symptom and it was due to a spliced battery cable. Check your battery cables at the engine and battery end. Clean all surfaces and retighten the bolts. This a good maintenance task to do each year.

---

ioptfm,

That type of Kill Switch started in 1996 for OMC motors.

Not sure about the rest of the outboard manufacturers though.

Look at photo #2 in this article and it will show you the newer style for the OMC/BRP motors. This key switch will still start the motor(s) after the kill switch harness has been removed.
http://www.whalercentral.com/articles...icle_id=74

---

After all my troubleshooting (fuel lines, killswitches, battery cables, new primer ball, fuel/water seperator filter replacement, new spark plugs, carb inspection) and advice from all the wonderful members of whaler central I have figured out the problem....After all that I narrowed down the problem/issue to the choke....I still dont know if its an electrical problem with the choke or if it intermittenly just gets stuck for someother reason, but I am sure the problem is with the choke.....

---

Did you say that when you changed the plugs they were black?
I had a problem with my 1992 Yamaha 150HP on my 19' Outrage II.
It was caused by switching from yamalube to synthetic oil.
Some of the old rubber parts in the oil tank under the engine cowl didn't like the new oil and failed.
This caused the float in the tank to stick filling the airbox full of oil.
From there the oil entered the bottom carb. fouling the plugs.
I have switched back to yamalube and replaced the injector pump and tank float with no new problems.