Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | I have a 1999 carbed 50 hp 4 stroke Merc. I had some issues with it this year right away too. Ran really rough at idle, ran better above 3,000 RPM. Started sort of okay, but overall didn't run great. Took the (4) carbs off and cleaned them out real well. The low speed jet was fairly clogged on the bottom two cylinders, and that seemed to be causing the problems. You could actually pull the plug wires off the two bottom cylinders and it didn't really change how the motor idled.
Cleaned everything out and it purrs like a kitten. Luckily, my uncle has always been handy with stuff and wasn't afraid of digging into the 4 carbs that are linked together. Looked like something I wouldn't have wanted to do, be he said it wasn't too bad.
Anyway, my motor pretty much ran like crap, and all it needed was a simple carb cleaning. I don't think just running carb cleaner through it would have been agressive enough to fix the problem.
curleytail |