Turnbuckle Pins Important?

[werebeagle]

Was the vent open on the fuel tank?

[Neises]

Originally Posted by chris_gee

If it ran for a short while, I think this is the most likely.

More great info, thank you. The motor is an old Sears Gamefisher 3.5, two-stroke. Loud, stinky, and clumsy with no neutral gear; so I'm not terribly disappointed to call it dead for now. Dealer threw it in with the boat, clearly stating "no guarantees". My wife called me 'The Master Haggler' during the walk of shame back to the truck & whole drive home.

It started on the first/second pull during all my testing in the yard, same at the lake. The vent was opened & closed about 50 times, and did go through the other standard motions like shaking a fist at the sky.

Probably had some sludge in bottom of the tank as you said. I topped it off with 32:1 per sticker on cowl, didn't think to check & clean out the tank first (it seemed to be starting/running great). It'll be in the garage for a rainy day. BassPro running a sale on Mercury outboards if anyone else is shopping.