15 4 -stroke kicker floods out

[Charlie W]

I have a 2002 merc 15hp 4 stroke. after traveling 2 miles out on lake st clair I shut down the big engine and tried to start the kicker. Squeased the primer ball, never got hard, fuel pumping out the carb (trip before ran the fuel out of it, I don't know why but I did.) Trolled the rest of the day with the big motor. ( 2 Stroke) Trimmed kicker down over night. Next day squeased ball, hard , Started right up. Never a problem for the remaining 5 days of constant trolling. A month later, one week of on and off trolling,No problem. Next trip, St.Clair. 4 to 5 footers, Never used kicker, too rough. (8 hour trip) Last weekend back to flooding out. Next day ,primer pumped up in garage. ( 3 40gallon tanks of fuel have been run through between occurances.) What should I do? take it in for service? ( possible float bent?) Seems like dirt in the needle and seat would have cleared by now. Is it possible this could be a warrantee situtation. Anyone have any thoughts? I use fuel stabizer and it fired right up this spring after storage. Do you feel that running it out of fuel and trailering it caused the problem. This is my first 4 stroke. The boat is a lund that is factory pre-rigged.

[mrbreeze]

Check the archives. This is a known and apparently common problem. It needs a new carb kit that Merc supplies. From memory it seems as though there is a needle problem. To make things worse, it appears as though some were repaired under warranty, while others were not.

[Fenwick 3]

You do not say if you have electric start! Pull the cover and make sure the choke is not stuck in the manual choke position. If it is and you have electric start this may be the problem, I hope. This can cause too much gas and leaking and no speed or rpm's above idle...

Good Luck, it's always Something!!
Fenwick

[Charlie W]

It has Elestric Choke. The motor starts and runs fine other wise. When priming fuel line fuel runs out carb. choke ok

[Charlie W]

How do I search way back? I can't seem to hit the right key word.

[perchjerker]

Think of your carb like a toliet tank. When the tank is full, the float closes off the fill valve.

Pretty much the same thing here. When the carb fuel bowl is full, the float will rise until it closes the needle and seat. If the float is stuck or saturated with fuel, it wont close the needle onto the seat. So you either have a bad needle and seat, or a stuck or leaking float. Doubt its bent, they are plastic. You can try gently tapping on the carb bowl with a hammer handle or maybe shaking the motor a bit while you are squeezing the bulb to try to dislodge the float, if it stops leaking you have islolated the problem. Those carbs are pretty basic, you can take the bowl off and check it out. I have the same motor, it got plugged up once, but it was something different, the accelerator pump was plugged, it caused the motor to stumble on accleration.

[Charlie W]

Would a new float be any different in design? Does the electric choke soleniod have to come out when you R&R the carb? Along with the float and needle and seat,( this is the problem) ( runs fine when needle finally closes.) Will I need a carb kit or just a float bowl gasket? It looks like 2 10mm bolts , 2 hoses, linkage, electic choke and it's out. Am I wrong? Dealer says 2 to 4 hours for a carb overhaul. If it's not warrantee then I'll try it myself. What should I do after the repair to prevent this? Dealer says they need to tare down to determine if it is covered (rock and a hard place). Perchjerker, Your thoughts.

[perchjerker]

>Would a new float be any different in design?
I dont know if they changed the design of the float, I dont think they did. You can go to the Merc website and the parts express link, enter your serial number and get an exploded view of the carb if you want.

Does the
>electric choke soleniod have to come out when you R&R the
>carb?

I dont think that will be an issue, if I remember, just disconnect the linkage.

Along with the float and needle and seat,( this is the
>problem) ( runs fine when needle finally closes.) Will I need
>a carb kit or just a float bowl gasket?

I was able to re-use everything. The gasket came off with no damage.

Not sure about yout needle and seat. Mine wasnt causing a problem, since yours is it quite likley you will have to change it.

It looks like 2 10mm
>bolts , 2 hoses, linkage, electic choke and it's out. Am I
>wrong?

Yea, I think thats it. Its been a year since I had mine off and many beers have passed since then LOL.


Dealer says 2 to 4 hours for a carb overhaul. If it's
>not warrantee then I'll try it myself. What should I do after
>the repair to prevent this? Dealer says they need to tare
>down to determine if it is covered (rock and a hard place).
>Perchjerker, Your thoughts.

Thats probably the going rate. Hard to say what happened or how to prevent it until you remove it and see what happened. May just be a peice of flashing from the float casting hanging uo that you can trim with a hobby knife or something, (like on a model car when you were a kid) or something dumb like that. Also be careful when you take it apart to keep the bowl upright so you can inspect the contents in the bottom of the bowl for contaminants. Might give you a clue as to what is going on. Work the float by hand, maybe gently blow into the fuel inlet and see if it seals when you raise the float and see if you find anything abnormal.

I have a manual on the motor, if you want I can scan the carb section if you want and email it to you. But its pretty simple.

[TrollerMark]

I had same previous problem, this happened last year at the walleye central outing talked to someone there that worked at a marina and they said Mercury had a new kit for this problem, so i talked to my dealership, they said yes they felt there was a new kit for this problem, so when i went to pick up boat, they charged me said it was not warrented for repairs, made post on this and had several dealership service mgrs, replied said it should have. Needless to say I called Mercury, they called back after talking to dealership they said this wasn't caused by warrenty problem. So Mercury said they would not back this, problem was it wasn't flooding at time of taking it in. It did it like yours is doing. So needless to say again, I haven't been back to that dealership, Problem is in Indiana you start running out of dealerships. I called one of the service reps' from another dealership and he said that my dealer didn't want to fix under warrenty since they would get more money out of me, than from Mercury. So good luck....

[perchjerker]

So what you are saying is the dealer lied to Mercury (and you) to get you to pay for a repair that should have been covered under warranty.

What did Mercury say when you told them what the dealer was up to? Since its a known problem, I would say that dealer would be in trouble for all this.

[TrollerMark]

Mercury didn't say anything, they took the side of the dealership and said too it would not be covered under warrenty, even though i had extended warrenty through 2004. THis maybe my last Mercury motor too....

[perchjerker]

That sucks. I would probably feel the same way you do.

So what happened in the end? Did you pay someone to replace the defective parts? Or did you buy them and fix it yourself?

Just curious.

[TrollerMark]

It was repaired by the dealership, thats how I found out that they were not going to repair under warrenty, so I paid the bill and went on and have never been back.

[perchjerker]

Thanks Mark. Good info if I ever run into this.

Still cant understand since the parts were updated why it wasnt covered.

I guess sometimes you just have to move on.